Christmas humour

 Not the most appropriate liturgical season to think about, but humour is timeless... 

Emptiness

I distinctly remember Fr TD John sending out a Christmas greeting to all the Salesian communities, years ago on the theme of 'Emptiness'. He basically used the following text from Lao Tzu and connected it to Jesus' kenosis, showing how of all things great and noble, emptiness offers them all the possibility. 

THIRTY spokes converge upon a single hub; 

It is on the hole in the center that the use of the cart hinges. 

We make a vessel from a lump of clay; 

It is the empty space within the vessel that makes it useful. 

We make doors and windows for a room; 

But it is these empty spaces that make the room livable. 

Thus, while the tangible has advantages, 

It is the intangible that makes it useful.

[From Lao Tzu, chapter 11]

Stories of Jesus' birth

Had a good laugh when I came across this particular amusing venn diagram describing the various stories narrating the birth of Jesus...

Wisdom of the wise men

The three 'wise' men who visited the infant Jesus in the manger, are they called 'wise' because they visited Jesus or were they wise beforehand and therefore able to find Jesus? 

As this debate raged on in my mind as I entered the Church for Mass this morning, I tried to find the answer to it in the readings.  So, after long, many many days, I paid close attention to the readings read in the Church.  Nothing very clear to clarify that doubt.  But then sometime after the gospel reading something else struck my mind which totally answered the question, but in a very different way. 

What flashed in my mind was the fact that their wisdom was not their doing!!  That they were termed 'wise' is actually not for what they did, but basically for recognizing that they were part of something greater.  The actual work was being done by God!  He was manifesting Himself - Epiphany.  That was the great event.  The three men who visited the infant did not make that happen.  They did not have any direct role to play in this manifestation.  All that they did was become aware of it and witness it!  Their greatness lay not in making the manifestation happen, but in discerning it, recognizing the event, and participating in it with reverence.  That's what wisdom consisted in! 

It is easy to get our focus misplaced... after all, the three kings/wise men are the new entrants to the crib.  The rest have been there for sometime now!  What is new or different easily catches our eye and we tend to focus on it, rather than the main event unfolding.  But the wisdom of the three kings offers us this lesson: to be able to discern the main point, from out of a million other things (perhaps new and flashing and great and amazing things!) happening.  And see ourselves in the light of that main point, rather than make ourselves the centre of attention and the rest revolving around us.  

Nativity scene from Fisher House, Cambridge

At the Catholic University Chapliancy centre of Cambridge (Fisher House), in the Chapel, they had recreated a whole Roman town - replete with a large street, buildings, miniature statues in Roman attire of the ancient time, shops and bridges and balconies!

And to one end, placed the nativity scene... felt a bit odd, to see it under a large arch, out in the open street, rather than in the back and beyond, manger!  Nonetheless, the whole arrangement was very beautiful. 

Love came down

A saviour is born

The angels said to the shepherds, "A saviour has been born unto you!"  A popular and continuous Christmas antiphon. 

I found myself meditating this morning as a shepherd, receiving this news, this piece of information.  Initially it did not make any sense.  Saviour?  But saviour of what?  From what is he going to save me?  I really don't have any adversaries or great risks that need rescuing.  Who rules or governs, and how one does so, does not really bother me.  I'm no politician who has great plans and ambitions.  Neither am I a scholar who is deeply passionate about ideas and theories.  I no religious buff either for whom matters of faith are life and death issues.  I don't interfere in anyone's affairs and everyone else leaves me alone, barely even acknowledging my presence.  It is only if my sheep stray into someone's property and cause damage, do I get noticed.  Apart from that it is just the grass, plants, shrubs, the sheep and me!  All that I have and care about is my sheep.  They have predators, and as long as I defend them, they're fine.  But me?  Saviour, for me?

But then, why would the angels tell me this if they knew that it would mean nothing to me?  Why would the angel tell ME?  Is my world too as small and limited as that of a shepherd with a few sheep?  Am I to widen my interests and horizon to be now 'concerned' about greater and more complex issues? 

Continued presence of the Divine

Speaking of God's continued presence, in the light of Christmas, and more specifically remembering Papa's presence (and all those at home) in my life, am reminded of Rabindranath Tagore's poem from Gitanjalli.  Only yesterday it occurred to me that I had in fact used this poem as my Christmas greeting one year.

SILENT STEPS 

Have you not heard his silent steps?
He comes, comes, ever comes. 

Every moment and every age,
every day and every night
he comes, comes, ever comes. 

Many a song have I sung in many a mood of mind,
but all their notes have always proclaimed,
he comes, comes, ever comes. 

In the fragrant days of sunny April
Through the forest path
he comes, comes, ever comes. 

In the rainy gloom of July nights
on the thundering chariot of clouds
he comes, comes, ever comes. 

In sorrow after sorrow,
it is his steps that press upon my heart,
and it is the golden touch of his feet
that makes my joy to shine.

Tagore's experience and expression of God in the everydayness of human life, that too in the most mundane of things, is truly very touching. 

Intervention vs Presence

Back at home, soon after Papa's funeral, while journeying in the car someone asked me if I believed in Divine intervention.  I promptly replied, "No!" And then continued, "I believe in Divine presence." 

It is not as if God 'peeks in' from time to time into this world and in our lives.  And then returns to 'His' Kingdom.  He is ever present and it is this presence that I firmly believe in - even though, most often I am not aware of it or blissfully ignore it. 

Replaying that conversation, I realize I did not think too deep then.  I was more thinking of Papa rather than God.  And for me, the same presence of Papa applied to my life.  For that matter, everyone in the family.  Having physically lived away from them for more than two decades, I've 'cultivated' a form of them in and around me.  That way, I don't feel absence or rue being separated from them. 

This morning as I sat for meditation, I realized, even though we never really celebrated Christmas or gave it much of a thought this year - I did not even know which day of the week it was! - I was living the spirit of Christmas.  

BreXmas

Good one merging Christmas and Brexit...

(The Telegraph 27 October 2019) 

Irony of Christmas ads

By any modern management and commercial standards, the following advertisement is late - way too late! And yes, liturgically we are still two weeks away from beginning the Advent season!  But with Halloween behind us, it is time to boost the Christmas sale!

Nonetheless this headline of a rather populist newspaper caught my attention.  The irony being, the ad speaks of a 'stress-free Christmas' and what actually causes stress is what the advert is peddling!  

Petty little Christmas

During prayer this evening it struck me that practically everything about Christmas is to do with normal, everyday little things.  There's nothing extraordinarily big or huge that is in play for Christmas.  The original Christmas itself is all about, the star, the manger, the shepherds, the wise men, petty politics of power and rule, strenuous journey, Bethlehem itself being a place of little renown.  Even the gifts the three kings/wise men brought were something of a teaser and not really hugely costly.  I'm sure the costliest of the three, gold would have been a bit of it.  Certainly not a crown or a huge brick!  That would have been used to buy some tools or wood in Joseph's carpentry shed.  Most important of all, and at the centre of it all is a little, helpless, infant.  Not a mighty king or ruler, not a celebrity.  Not any wealthy family.  A mere young couple far away from home and perfectly homeless in a strange town.  Just a little baby boy. 

The liturgy of the celebration today too is simple.  It does not have the intricacies of the Easter vigil.  At the most, joyful songs.  People are not hugely worried about big things.  All across the world it is a time when families gather together, especially for a family meal.  Holidays.  Gifts for one another.  Petty little things, with and for one another.

Wish we retain the same spirit: petty, little Christmas!  

The light of the star

Light has always a very special significance in Christian tradition.  In fact, in every tradition across the world, religious or secular, light plays a very important role.  It is not just the function of it, but the very meaning and possibilities it brings to the fore, while itself being 'unseen' makes light a peculiar phenomenon. 

Christmas, of all feasts, is a feast of lights.  We use lights extensively in our decorations for this feast.  Though Easter is more liturgically closer to the theme of light, Christmas somehow 'appears' brighter!  But what struck me most today was the fact that the actual Christmas, b'day of Jesus, the only actual light available was that of a star.  Not the bright shining sun or the luminescence of the moon. Just a star!  And how much light does a star emit?  Barely anything.  But when that is the only light available, it appears bright. 

As we begin the new year, it strikes me that we begin it in the light of a star.  We are now called to follow that little light.  Hopefully it will lead us to the light of our lives - as it did the shepherds and wise men. Rather than look for the bright radiant and focussed lights, the challenge is to locate and follow the little light of a star. 

Self-taught faith journey

The feast of the three kings, that Epiphany celebrated, post-Christmas has a very different touch to it than the rest of the Biblical history preceding it.  In a way it is a foretaste of the Acts of the Apostles, wherein the message of Christ is not restricted to the Jews or the land of Judah but begins to spread across the whole world.  (Or is it?  There have always been non-Jewish 'interpolations' in the Biblical history, right since the origin of the Jewish race. The story of Ruth, for example.)

Of the many things interesting in the narrative of the three kings the one that caught my attention yesterday was the part where the kings come to know of the birth of the messiah from their knowledge of astronomy.  There is no mention of an angel appearing to them and announcing the birth of Jesus, as in the case of Mary, or the shepherds.  There is no 'God-telling-them' as such!  However, they read the signs of nature and infer and based on this knowledge they come to experience the child Jesus.

This has an important lesson for us all: one's faith journey need not necessarily be strewn with divine revelation!  If one is open to the other, and willing to be led by signs other than ones approved by men, there is a great possibility that one encounters the divine along the way.

There is no mention of the kings prior to the event nor after their visit to the child Jesus.  Some wish to believe that they went back as different men, just as they took a 'different route' back home - I doubt it!  They would not have been very different from what they initially were.  They already were good, they only continued working on their goodness.  

Christmas in flesh and blood

On Christmas eve, I was surprised to see a couple of policemen with a youngster in our community room.  Fr John told me that the youngster was a past pupil of our Salesian school and needed a place for the night. So he'd be with us that night.  I was awake all through the time since I intended to participate in the midnight vigil service in the Parish.  I went down to the community room a couple of times and found the policemen speaking to this youngster.  I gathered he had not committed a crime serious enough for the police to arrest him and lock him up but there must have been something that necessitated their presence.

A while later a member of our community came in and found this whole scene a bit uncomfortable.  Since Fr John had by then left for Mass to some place, he came up to my room asking what was going on downstairs.  I told him as much as I knew.  But he was not in anyway consoled.  So he went down and spoke to the police officers themselves.  He then came up and informed me that the youngster had been caught up in a fight and had no place to go for the night.  Since he mentioned that he was a past pupil of the Salesians and that we would offer some assistance, they came to our place.  I told the confrere that Fr John has said that he'd be staying with us for the night and he also had left a note on the notice board to this effect.

Around 10.30 the policemen left.  I guessed they felt their work done and that the youngster could be left alone.  Our confrere was still quite agitated.  He then 'volunteered' to stay back (rather than go to the Parish for the vigil service as we had earlier thought of) and awake till Fr John returned from wherever he went for Mass.  He advised that I lock my room when I go for Mass, "just in case".

I found it a bit odd, an over-reaction.  Here was a youngster who in blind faith had sought help from the Salesians, after years of finishing his school.  If he was of any real danger, the police would have taken him into custody.  But they didn't.  So why should we be so alarmed.  After all, he was a youngster, may have been drunk or a bit high on drugs or maybe that was his way of talking (as I realised over the past couple of days), in need of shelter for the night.  And most important of all, it was Christmas eve!  We were about the celebrate the birth of a child who had no place of his own, born in someone else's cattle shed, far away from his own hometown, with no family or friends to assist his parents.

The youngster is still with us.  He was falsely accused in a violent incident and was himself a victim. However he is homeless.  He has two little children with a partner, whom he does not trust.  Yesterday he appeared in court and was cleared of all accusations.  He is currently looking for a place to stay, through the social services.  But being Christmas season, most places are full or under-staffed and hence he is still with us.  He is just 25 but talks as if he's an old man, about practically anything and everything!  A few other things are peculiar about him, but I guess they're more to do with the general lifestyle here than about him particularly.  However, I noticed something very noteworthy: Since the past four days he never took any food by himself, even though we asked him to help himself to whatever was available in the kitchen, just next to his room.  If invited he would join us for meals - just the one meal we have in common.  He could not go out for fear that when he returned there'd be no one to let him in.  So he'd sit, watch TV for sometime, smoke a bit in the garden...

I admire Fr John for his patience and trust.  He himself did not know this youngster, nor did the youngster know Fr John.  The young man's fond memories of time with the Salesians is mainly due to another Salesian who is presently not here.  But he was warmly invited to our Christmas meal, he received the same gift as did anyone of us at table that night.  There was no air of suspicion or superiority or condemnation of his present state of life.  No preaching or long lectures - neither in public nor privately!  Just offering him what he needs most at this point: a place to stay.  And while with us, he was as equal a guest as was anyone else!  No partiality! No deferential treatment. For me, it was a very humbling experience just to be around and listen and be of whatever help I could. A very unique experience of what Christmas could mean in flesh and blood. 

Starting with nothing

This Christmas season what comes most frequently to my mind is the manner in which God chooses to start his work here on earth - with nothing! Absolutely nothing!  First of all, as a little helpless baby.  That too in a foreign land.  With not even a proper shelter.  Born in a poor family with only the father working as a carpenter. No riches, no fame, no inheritance.  Perhaps the only claim to fame was that he was of the line of David!  But that too, the lineage going so far back that it might as well have been upto Adam.  Even if it was of importance, the claim to belong to King David's family offered no rewards or freebies.

However, the only thing of great importance to him was he had good and loving parents.  At least that he was not deprived of.  Considering the number of children born to broken and shattered families or living in horrific conditions lacking love, affection and the least of concern, Jesus did not have to suffer a childhood.

In spite of "lacking" so much, riding on hardly a couple of beneficial factors, Jesus goes on to make a mark in the history of the world and specifically on human beings.  Compared to his initial available resources, most of us, for sure we religious, have plenty! 

Two Santas

The other day two Santas appeared in our community room...

They are just a little more than an inch tall, further dwarfed by the new 59 inch TV!

Christmas decorations are already up and about, mostly for more than two weeks.  Though one barely sees the crib anywhere, most houses are lit with special lights, Christmas trees, reindeers, santas...  Shopping malls began selling Christmas 'merchandise' almost a month ago.  Adverts related to Christmas began as early as October!  Christmas certainly comes very early here in the UK!  About Christ, well...! 

Unreported episode of the nativity event

Did you know that Mother Mary had to fight off a sheep who was keen to take baby Jesus with it?  Watch this...

Children will be children!  Poor baby Jesus... perhaps that'd be the first time there were people fighting for him ... rather than against him or in his name!

Santa paws?

Call it ridiculous or obscene or whatever... but here are some ads for Christmas presents for pets!  Yes, for animals!

Last month there was a whole page ad in the papers for cat-proof Christmas tree!
Now that's going to the dogs, literally!

At the manger

While at Mass today, it struck me that at the Manger you have the richest (3 kings) and the poorest (shepherds) under one roof - if that manger did have one! Bringing them together was this child, Jesus.

Secondly, the kings had brought in gifts. The shepherds didn't. Know not what to make of it. But I guess, the shepherds were not really prepared to what they were witnessing.  The kings on the other hand, were informed early and had come prepared with gifts, having made a long journey.

Perhaps the simplest lesson to draw from this scene: Everyone is invited/welcome into His presence!