Christmas: Bread Might Be Hungry

To call the very birth of Christ in history a political event, and its celebration today a scandalous exercise, wouldn’t be incorrect.

The annual memorial celebration of the Birth of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, undoubtedly surpasses all religion- boundaries, and for centuries has remained a universal festival, offering delight to every human heart. Necessitated by no legal code and demanded by no external pressure, humanity at large deliberately makes space in their daily schedule of goings and comings for celebrating, sometimes irrationally, the birth of ‘someone’ whether one is familiar or acquainted with that person or not. The phenomenon is inexplicable! The fact is that romanticism has enveloped this event so expansively and penetratingly that the truth of the matter remains elusive to the celebrators of this festival. While romanticism may be worth the grain for literature, reality may remain distant from the fact of history. People at large prefer romanticism rather than reality lest their conscience get disturbed. This is in no way to block celebration; instead to remind that there is ‘more to life than meets the eyes.’ Hence for most the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ remains on the periphery of life as a means of warding off those aspects of life which enervate and offer discomfort. By preferring to remain on the bland surface of daily existence,
the soothing balm
of forgetfulness of
the negative sphere
creates breathing
easy and let the life
go on. Therefore,
the celebrators
drown themselves
at times in foolish
revelry with an exorbitant financial source, as if the earth is under their management, who they can pound as they will. Human reason as human, relegated to nothing when it serves the enlarged self, in the celebration of the birth of the Galilean Jew, Jesus, forgetting that that Jew was born to die for others.

The Birth of Christ, neither mythic or
epic legend nor a fairy tale, is historically established by biblical and related scholars. While Galilee was under the Roman Empire, Jesus was born. That being stated, uniquely,
his birth in history was a Divine disclosure of the concealed truth, not so much about who God was but who the human person was/
is. Positively, the Christian Scriptures are emphatic in considering the dignity of the human person as being created in the Creator’s image and likeness. The humans surpass all other created things because they alone are a replica of God, who alone bears His imprint. We are persons, conscious, and most of all, are able to love. Hence human body has incomparable dignity and it is the first gift of the Creator. ‘We humans possess our own particular grandeur because we have the incomparable dignity of being formed as image of God and allowed to share in the Creator’s freedom and happiness’ (Thaddee Matura).

The Birth of Christ also discloses the truth, on the other hand, about the deep darkness of self-will and ego play obstructing foundational goodness and
the movement of selfless concern towards others. Envy, detraction, murmuring, greed, apathy and violent tendencies close in on self, leading to gross injustice, compulsive hate, heartless indifference and war in human interactions and dealings. Societies at all times have consistently interrupted human relationships of friendship and neighbourliness, many a time violently, for mere self-gain. Distress and tears have ever been the existential sufferings on the faces of the humans because of the hard-heartedness and unconcern of fellow men and women. All these are caused by the dominant powers of destruction residing at the centre of human heart. This is the disclosure found in the event of the birth of Jesus Christ in history and today. Therefore celebrating Christmas
is diminishing the ego-filled heart in order to alleviate sufferings on the face of humanity. Christmas truly is the disclosure of the basic lie residing deep down in the heart of men and women which is covered with ‘fig leaves’ of the commercial and monetary market.

To call the very birth of Christ in history
a political event, and its celebration today a scandalous exercise, wouldn’t be incorrect. It
is scandalous in the very manner the birth of
a Divine Child took place – ‘there was no place in the inn’ (Lk 2: 7). Moreover the warmth in the coldest night experienced by this child was the breathing out of the animals and the straw where and on which the child lay. Does this surprise us, the women and men of the polis? Could this not be a definite sign that the Divine manifestation takes place not in enormous and luminous golden structures, fascinating temples and churches, in huge statues erected in prominent city-centres by our governments and religious leaders; instead it takes place in the huts of the marginalised humans
and in their unpretentious existence? May
it strike us that one’s lamps can never burn bright and outshine others’ if the darkness in which millions live is not lighted up by our burning candles of compassion and kindliness. Christmas is a political event in which men and women with civic sense expand their vision beyond their petty interests and look out for opportunities to become neighbors of any in need. Politics is nothing but thoughtfulness of others in an environment of human dwelling. The birth of Christ, therefore, is a sheer thoughtfulness of God who desires human well being. Christmas is not a competitive market of goods but a sharing of those goods justly,
for no profit except the profit of peaceable communion of life. It is scandalous because
it reverts to the original creation, humbles
the proud hearted and raises the lowly. As a political event Christmas upholds human dignity, establishes equity and equality, eliminates bigotry and shuts hate-mongering and creates healthy tolerance and creative harmony among peoples. Six hundred years prior to the birth of Jesus prophet Isaiah had declared about the harmony and tolerance that would be a reality: ‘The wolf shall dwell with the lamb...the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them... The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra...They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain...’ (Isaiah 11: 6-9).

The religion-stained government might do all it can to undo the person of Jesus Christ and his seductive power or even mute the echo of his words by ordinances passed against minority religions and legislating Anti-conversion Bill. However, the fact is that his person and his message are still calling humanity to a more worthy human and hope- filled life, particularly in the face of an on- going war which Russia is waging on Ukraine resulting in enormous amount of innocent children becoming a prey to death. The birth of Jesus Christ was a protest against the innocent children being slaughtered by king Herod then, and it remains a protest against the cruel manner in which the innocent children are treated today by our society of high-minded rulers and governments.

Christmas is not an abstract event but
an event that presses on to make humans ‘neighbours’ filled with loving kindness. The Incarnate God lived and lives today among human beings, healing their lives and doing good, defending the least ones, loving women and seeking their dignity and rights. He does not belong to Christians only and he is never the private property of preachers and teachers. His birth, therefore, transcends religions, doctrines and personal interests and opens
up towards the expansion of hearts beyond fixed circumference of petty minded political leaders and conventional hard-core religionists whom our country is nurturing. It sharply and prickingly reminds humanity ravaged by hate and ill-will to believe in love as he did, to look at people with compassion and to confront life and death with hope as he did.

St Augustine of Hyppo stuns humanity with a paradoxical thought on Christmas:

The Creator of humankind was made man so that the Ruler of the stars might suck

at the breast of a woman;


that the Bread might be hungry;


the Fountain thirst, the night sleep;


the Way be wearied with journey...


the Foundation be hung upon a tree;

Strength be made weak; Health be wounded; Life, die. ∎