Christmas celebrations is cancelled in Bethlehem and it is impossible to celebrate. The current situation in the Holy Land of Middle East is concerning. The war is killing thousands of innocent Palestinian and Israelis children. The Churches there have unitedly decided not to celebrate Christmas externally but pray for peace. And they have decided that Christmas celebrations will be with no external show, instead a sober but meaningful Christmas moment with prayers. They want to send a message to the world about the Christmas celebration there. So the Churches in Palestine and Israel together have come up with this idea of setting up crib with angels of good tidings and the child Jesus laid on the rubbles, resembling destroyed houses. War images show children being pulled out of rubbles, due to the bombardment. Children are displaced and houses destroyed. This is then in solidarity with those suffering, giving hope. That is what Christmas this year looks like in Palestine. This is the message that Jesus gives us today. Let the same sentiment resonate with us.
O God, the creator of all
life, protect the people who call Israel and Palestine home. We remember those
living in Jerusalem and Gaza whose lives are marred by restrictions to their
freedom, the threat of eviction from their homes, and the constant fear of
armed conflict. Forgive those with anger, hatred, and violence. Soften hearts,
open minds and give courage to protect
the sanctity of life, the right to freedom of worship, and the security
of a safe home. Let hatred be turned into love, fear to trust, despair
to hope, oppression to freedom, occupation to liberation. Let justice flow like rivers, that human dignity will be
respected, and that each of us may strive to do justice, love mercy, and walk this
Christmas humbly with you, our God.
The wonderful
Canticle of Zechariah, puts Jesus and John in the context of the great story of
Israel. Let’s explore, as Bishop Barron notes, two lines of that great prayer
today.
The God of Israel,
Zechariah prays, “has come to his people and set them free.” This is what God
always wants to do, says Bishop Barron. “He hates the fact that we’ve become
enslaved by sin and fear, and accordingly, he wants to liberate us.” The
central event of the Old Testament, according to him, is an event of liberation
from slavery. “We are, as sinners, enslaved to our pride, our envy, our anger,
our appetites, our greed, our lust—all of which wrap us up and keep us from
being the people that we want to be.”
The second line from Zechariah’s
Canticle (Benedictus) is: “He has raised up for us a mighty Savior, born of the
house of his servant David.” The Bishop says, “God will effect this liberation
through the instrumentation of a mighty Savior. This should be read against the
background of Israel’s long history of military struggle against its enemies. A
great warrior has come, and he is from the house of Israel’s greatest soldier,
David. God had promised that he would put a descendant of David on the throne
of Israel for all eternity, and Zechariah is prophesying that this will take
place.”
The Jesuit Journalist
and writer Myron Pereira has this to say: “Our modern sensibility keeps asking
“But how?” The ancients didn’t ask how, they asked why: Jesus’ name tells us:
“God with us” (Emmanuel) will “save his people from their sins” (Jesus). So
whether Jesus was actually born in Bethlehem or not, is secondary. We say that
he was “born in Bethlehem” because Bethlehem was David’s birthplace; King David
was Israel’s greatest king and the ancestor of the Messiah.”
According to the
Jesuit Priest, “If Jesus is God, if he is king, if his birth had been foretold
— then surely he must be gifted with incense and gold, and a star must indicate
his birthplace. And as a greater king than Herod, he must also outwit the
tyrant in order to fulfil his destiny. Thus Matthew’s story of the magi is a
sort of parable with Old Testament allusions. The Hebrew word for this is
midrash, a story that illustrates a scriptural message, and into which the
reader can find clues to understand. A midrash is like a cartoon today, which
comments on a political situation in a few quick lines, and provokes a flash of
understanding.”
“That is why”, says
Myron, “we should not to take the stories literally, in a "linear"
fashion, applying the modern criteria of empirical evidence. Pope Benedict XVI,
in his book Jesus of Nazareth recommended the faithful not to get lost in the
picturesque details, but to read them with a sense of wonder and awe; like Mary
and Elizabeth praise God; thank him, with Zachary and Simeon, for not having
forgotten, for always keeping his promises. The Christmas stories weren’t
written to give us information about Jesus’s birth. They were written to give
meaning to our lives of faith, and to capture our imagination with the message
that God is always with us (Emmanuel), that we are saved through the child
called Jesus/Yeshua, “Yahweh saves.” (Cf. Myron Pereira, ‘You mean, Jesus wasn’t born in Bethlehem?’ 22 Dec 2023, UCA News)
Wish you all a cordial and
solidal Christmas and a Peace-filled New Year 2024.
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