[stephenkhoo]

Sunday, 25 December, 2011, Solemnity of Christmas
THE CAUSE FOR OUR CELEBRATION
SCRIPTURE READINGS: ISA 9:2-7; TITUS 2:11-14; LK 2:1-14

Today, people all over the world, including non-Christians, will be celebrating. For some, Christmas is a time to forget about all their worries and woes and join in the merry-making for a while. For others, it is only a day of truce from war and quarrels; not that they have made peace with each other, but at least they avoid breaking the universal observance of this day as a day of peace. For many, it is a nice day to be with friends, to spend some time with the family, and to exchange gifts with each other. It is a sentimental day.

But if we are celebrating Christmas only for these reasons, we cannot claim to have really celebrated Christmas. In fact, we might even be short-changing ourselves. This is because such celebrations are not meant to last. It is a superficial kind of peace and love which we have created. There is no real conversion of the heart. More often than not, we would probably go back to our old way of life after Christmas. If such is the case, Christmas is no big deal. It is a day like any other day; another social event to commemorate love and peace. It is simply another holiday like the rest of the holidays in the year. We need not even call it Christmas day. So why do we really want to celebrate Christmas Day?

We celebrate Christmas for only one reason – because Jesus is our Saviour. Indeed, the good news of great joy that the angels brought to the shepherds is this: “Today in the town of David a saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.” Yes, to celebrate Christmas is to celebrate Christ as our Lord and Saviour – our Saviour not only for today but forever. The corollary to this confession is the implication that we need to be saved.

But what does Christ save us from? The truth is that today, many people do not feel the need to have a saviour. They do not see that there is anything wrong with them. And even if they do, they think they can fix it all by themselves. Today, man feels that he has the power to solve everything and he is his own saviour. Yes, with the rapid growth of technology, man has come to think that he can control and create the world and fix his own destiny. In fact, to many, the idea of a saviour is degrading to their human dignity. That is why to a great extent, man has usurped the place of God. He has made himself his own God. Man worships himself as the Ultimate one. This is narcissisism at its highest level. When man makes himself the norm for everything, this will also spell his own destruction. It is egotism that Jesus comes to save us from.

Ironically, the way Jesus saves us is to make us “gods”. The way Jesus saves us is by deifying us. This is what Paul says in the second reading; Christ comes to teach us that “what we have to do is to give up everything that does not lead to God.” Yes, Christ saves us by making us ”god”. As the Fathers of the Church often said, “God become man so that man might become God.” Salvation is deification. But this must not be wrongly misunderstood. It does not mean that we become gods in such a way that we become competitors of God. No. Our deification is our sharing in His divine life. That is what we mean by deification. What is this divine life if not the sharing of His love, that same love which made Him assume our humanity.

And in order to help to us concretely share in the divine life, Jesus teaches us to live our humanity to the fullest. For this reason, we must also add that our deification consists in our humanization. Thus, Christ became man so that we might become more fully man. Christ’s incarnation, is to show and teach us what it means to be truly man. Christmas then is to celebrate God who became man in Jesus so that He could save us. For this reason, Christmas is nothing less than the great joy of knowing that God has become man like one of us so that He can save us.

If being saved is to become truly man, we must therefore now ask the next question: what does it mean to be truly man? To be truly man is to live first and foremost a life of relationship with God. Man cannot be man without God since he is made in God’s image to share in His divine life. The incarnation reminds us that only Jesus who is God-man can truly save us because He is one who is truly man because He is truly God; and truly God, because He is truly man. For us too, if we want to be truly man, we must also be truly God. Without a real relationship with God, we lose our objectivity and perspective. Hence, Paul speaks of the need to “give up everything that does not lead to God.” The invitation to live a self-restrained life is simply an invitation to recognize that we cannot live simply on the sensual and material level. It is a reminder that our lives cannot be complete unless we live on the transcendent dimension sphere as well. The natural desire for the aesthetics, for knowledge and for love reflects the transcendence in man who is basically orientated to the Infinite and Ultimate One.

Secondly to be truly man is to live a life of freedom. Freedom is an essential attribute of God. Without freedom, we are neither human beings nor sharers of God’s life. Without freedom, there can be no real joy or gladness. Freedom is the pre-requisite for any human actions to have meaning and significance. Isaiah in the first reading tells us that the Messiah has come to take away the yoke that weighs upon our shoulder. He has come to break the rod of our oppressors. It is the mission of the Messiah to set us free.

What is it then, that we are called to be free from? What is it that enslaves us? It is our ambitions – our ambition for glory, power, riches and status. Man is a slave to his worldly pursuits and his ego. With ambition comes evil, selfishness and divisions. In our desire to be better than others, we create enemies, envy, and self-protectionism. In this way, our friends even become our enemies. With ambition and self-preoccupation, we have no space for others in our lives. This was the experience of Jesus when He was born in Bethlehem. He was born in a manger as there was no room for Him in the inn. Indeed, when we are carried away by our ambitions, very often we have no time for others; and even when we have time for them, we only want to make use of them. It is not surprising also that most people have very little time for cultivating a relationship with God.

For this reason, many of us live empty lives because we have no love in our hearts. Only when there is love in our hearts, can we then be happy. If Jesus chose to be born poor in the manger, it is but a reminder to us all that happiness ultimately is dependent not on where we are born or who we are. Happiness is a matter of whether we have love in our hearts. We can be certain that the love of Joseph and Mary for Jesus and their protective care were sufficient to give warmth and joy to Jesus. Only people like the shepherds who were not too busy for others could receive the Good News of joy from the angels.

Indeed, the more a man empties himself for others, the more he finds himself. That is why Christ, who emptied Himself in His divinity and assumed our humanity, is raised to a new life. It is the only ambition that does not bring about rivalry. It is concerned with others than for self. If we truly are concerned for others, then, we will make this world a lovely place to live in. Consequently, such an ambition is truly self-sacrificing. Yes, Paul tells us that “Christ sacrificed himself for us in order to set us free from all wickedness and to purify a people so that we could be his very own.” Yes, Christ wants us all to share in the life-giving nature of God in Him.

Finally, the invitation to be a man for others presupposes that we must first be a man with others. This is the real meaning of the incarnation. If God becomes man, it is in order that He might be one with us. Jesus assumes our humanity so that He can journey with us and truly call us His brothers. Such solidarity with us requires humility and self-emptying. Perhaps, for this reason, Jesus chose to be born in an unknown place and assume an unknown status without having any privileges. His close identification with the outcasts and the poor and the marginalized is His credential as the messenger of peace and love. By being with us as a man, He reveals to us the true face of God and our true calling and potential. By being with Him, we realize how we should live our lives in such a way that truly makes us more human and consequently lead us to God and to life.

Yes, the ultimate celebration of Christmas is to offer ourselves as gifts to each other. The gifts that we give at Christmas are but only a poor symbolic giving of ourselves to others. In this way, the celebration of Christmas indeed gives hope and light to a world that is filled with darkness, in sin and selfishness. As we celebrate Jesus as our Light, as our counsellor and wisdom, let us pray that at this Christmas, we will be able to offer love to others and make this world a happier and warmer place to live in. Only with this perspective will Christmas become a meaningful celebration, not lasting for only a day, but the beginning of our commitment to render our whole life for the love of others; and by so doing find life ourselves. It is the beginning of a new life of love and giving in Christ – a life that makes us truly human and truly divine. It is the life of the God-man, Jesus, who is the Christ.