God is on our side

The call of Christmas is a challenge for us to do what we can to make the world a better place, writes Michael Kelly

I had a curious experience a few months ago. A friend from Mauritius, a Hindu, asked me to tell him the story of Jesus Christ. It’s difficult, living in a culture where even if people are not churchgoers, there is a basic awareness of the Christian story.

I fumbled to try and explain the theological significance of incarnation – God becoming human. As my friend’s puzzlement increased and my words became less and less adequate, I turned to the Christmas crib and the story of Christ’s birth in Bethlehem.

It’s a story that’s familiar from childhood. In schools and parish halls across the country, countless generations of Irish children have told and retold the story in nativity plays with varying degrees of success and the odd blooper or tantrum here or there.

And there, amid the carols and candles, the presents and parties, there’s a profound but simple truth at the centre of Christmas that sometimes escapes us in the midst of the hustle and bustle.

For the religious believer, Christmas transforms everything. It’s a moment in human history when Christians believe that, in the humility of a baby, God, the Creator of the world, entered into human history. God is with us, God is on our side.

Magi

I love the story of the Three Wise Men visiting from the East, the Magi. They followed a star expecting to see a king clothed in grandeur and surrounded by a royal court. They got a shock! What they encounter, instead, is a baby laid in a manger, the child of a poor family from a poor city: Nazareth.

The Gospel recounts the scoffing view of the city in first century Palestine: “Nazareth? Can anything good come from that place?” was the reply. (John 1: 46).

The Christmas story contrasts the noisy and ostentatious power of our world with the defenceless power of love in a little baby. For who can fail to be moved by the unconditional love of a baby? Or the story of the family forced to flee as refugees to Egypt far from the land of their birth?

But is it anything more than a beautiful story? Does the narrative from a stable or a cave on the outskirts of Bethlehem some 2,000 years ago resonate in our streets and homes, our places of work and the way in which we live our lives?

I meet lots of people who tell me that they’re spiritual, but not religious – it’s almost a cliché at this stage. One friend likes to jokingly say he’s religious, but not spiritual! I think the true test of spirituality is really a simple one: is the world a better place for my being in it?

The call of Christmas, perhaps the challenge of Christmas, whether one is religious, spiritual or neither of the above, is not a call to self-fulfilment, or smug self-reliance. It’s a challenge to get out of ourselves and do what we can to make the world a better place.

This is the simple message at the heart of what Pope Francis is saying: that people need to be kinder to one another to build a better world. We have to bring the message of the Gospel to the ‘existential margins’, as the Pope puts it.

Recovery

Many people will not have the Christmas they would want this year. There is talk of recovery and rapid growth, but money is still scarce in many homes, loved ones are overseas. In some homes, cherished family members have died, and there is an empty place at the table.

But the spirit of community, the true spirit of Christmas cheer is alive and well. Many people are giving of themselves to help those who are in need.

It could be the volunteers who give up their Christmas to prepare a lunch for the homeless and vulnerable, or the countless members of the St Vincent de Paul who discreetly provide help at this time of year to struggling families.

There are heroic people who show the true spirit of Christmas cheer and shed light in darkness.

And in this Christmas season, that light is intertwined in a shaft of eternal light that pierces our winter gloom promising peace and happiness that might dispel our despair.

Let Christmas not become a thing

Merely of merchant’s trafficking,

Of tinsel, bell and holly wreath

And surface pleasure, but beneath

The childish glamour, let us find

Nourishment for soul and mind.

Let us follow kinder ways

Through our teeming human maze,

And help the age of peace to come

From a Dreamer’s martyrdom.

– Madeline Morse