I
can feel it all around me. I can hear the melody of the wind-bell blowing and chiming Christmas-Christmas-Christmas. The shopping malls are overcrowded as a result
of massive Christmas shopping. Some are really shopping, while some are
window-shopping. I guess those are the things that raise the tempo of excitements
about Christmas, and without them the shopping malls will not be cynosures
anymore, especially at this time of the season. Traffics are congested and
roads are clogged. Both add to the excitements too! The decorations in all nooks
and crannies tell the whole stories about what is going to happen in a couple
of days. They look really Christmassy.
Today’s
gospel reading pointed to the excitements about Christmas with the story of the
visitation. We read the message at Luke
1:39-45. We saw how excited Elizabeth was when she heard Mary’s greetings.
Even the baby (Jesus) leaped in her womb in excitement. That was a depiction of
spiritual attitudes we should emulate in this season; attitude of faith and
humility. We saw that faith portrayed by Mary (I guess that was why she was
chosen to be the mother of God to start with) in Elizabeth’s words: ‘blessed is she who has believed that what
the Lord has said to her will be accomplished’ and we saw the attitude of
humility portrayed by Elizabeth with all sense of sincerity when she heard Mary’s
greetings. Elizabeth’s heart was filled with Holy Spirit, and in a loud cry,
said ‘but why am I so favoured that the
mother of my Lord should come to me?’
In
this excitement I engaged in a conversation with an old man I always sit beside
in the church. I asked him what he found most exciting about this period that
is fast coming- Christmas. He told me it was about his childhood memories which
the period of Christmas always brings to life. He told me a brief story of how
he enjoyed on every Christmas day as a kid and continued to enjoy even as an
old man his favourite TV programmes- Z
Cars. I could see the excitements all over his face as he told the story. I
couldn’t help it, but to submerge my mind into the surrealism of a TV series
that were set in a made-up town somewhere around Liverpool was the readily
available option.
As
our journey towards the Christmas comes to an end, we have no option other than
to live Christmas with faith and humility, as Mary and Elizabeth had shown us. There
is actually no valid point in concealing the happiness and gratefulness that
comes with the attitude of faith and humility. Mary and Elizabeth believed God’s
words without questioning them. Was not that a great risk? Mary’s faith made
her become the mother of God, while Elizabeth’s humility made her recognize the
honour of being paid a visit by someone she revered so high. However, this
should be a clear indication to us that the birth of Jesus Christ on Christmas
day is a sign of God’s visit as well as his coming to stay with us. Thus we
should recognize his presence, but we can only take notice of his presence
through the eyes of others. This period is essentially the time to show others
that we have recognized God’s presence and we celebrate his coming. There is
always opportunity available for us to share our joys and assist the needy.
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