Let us become a people of goodwill

Faith in Christ, as someone unique, is based not so much on the fact that He once lived on this earth but on the fact that He is truly alive and remains so for ever. “Jesus Christ yesterday, today and the same for ever” (Heb. 13: 8). Hence, it was only natural that the meaning of Jesus’ birth was also viewed as one coloured by that uniqueness. All the picturesque depictions of Christmas – the angel appearing to the Blessed Virgin Mary, angels announcing the birth to shepherds, the star and the three wise men or the scholars coming to worship the child from the furthest corners of the earth and, thus, recognizing the significance of Christ for the entire human race, the plot against the life of the child Jesus by the powerful and His escape – have only one pedagogical aim viz. to convey to us the uniqueness of the person of Jesus Christ.

That uniqueness was unequivocally recognized by the first followers when St. Thomas, the apostle, exclaimed to the Risen Christ “My Lord and my God” (John 20: 28) – a title which the first Christians refused to give even to Caesar who claimed it for himself and for which hundreds paid dearly by dying as martyrs.

Thus, central to Christian faith is the eruption of the divine reality in the midst of humanity in the person – life and work - of Jesus Christ. And Christmas proclaims that that person, however much divine, was also really and truly human. “The Word became a human being and, full of grace and truth, lived among us” (John 1: 14). It was possible for God to take human nature to Himself because human nature was already touched by the divine in the act of creation. “God created man in the image of himself..” (Gen. 1:27). Consequently, what is authentically human is radically open to be united to God, to be one with Him. That actually happened at the first Christmas in the little bundle of flesh and blood that the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Joseph and the shepherds saw in the feeding trough of a cow shed.

Openness to God, to the divine is at the depth of every human person – at the root of the human body, soul and psyche. Very simply every human heart longs for unlimited and unending values as love, joy, happiness, contentment, well-being etc. This longing is, at its core, a longing for God for that is what God ultimately IS – love, joy, peace, truth, happiness etc. The ultimate reality transcends us. That is why we seek it. It is beyond our grasp. It, therefore, must grasp us.

That’s exactly what happened on that first Christmas day. The Ultimate, the Divine – God – reached out and grasped us in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus is, thus, the human face of God. “The Word became a human being…No one has ever seen God. The only Son, who is the same as God..has made him known” (John 1: 14, 18). “He will be called Emmanuel which means God is with us” (Matthew 1: 23).

As a nation, being increasingly crippled by war, terrorism and internal refugees, peace is the crying need of our motherland. Peace will, undoubtedly, be the grand illusion of our day unless we lead our nation into the shadow of Ultimate Peace. It is, therefore, incumbent on all who believe in God and in the Ultimate to become channels of goodwill, for lasting peace can only come from God – that was what God offered us at the birth of Jesus Christ.

“Glory to God in the heavens and peace on earth to people of goodwill” (Luke 2: 14). Christ’s birthday peace invites us to become a people of goodwill – Since weapons are more powerful than goodwill and righteousness in our land, let us turn to Him who is the eternal offer of Peace to us. “For Christ himself is our peace.. By His death on the cross, He united both races.. and brought them back to God” (Eph. 2: 14-16). “For a son has been born for us, a son has been given to us.. and this is the name He has been given.. Mighty-God, Prince-of-Peace ”( Isaiah 9: 5). May His Peace take hold of our hearts and our nation.