Xmas Is Dawn Of Inner Freedom

12/26/12

Publication: The Times Of India Bangalore;Date: Dec 25, 2012;Section: Editorial;Page: 14

THE SPEAKING TREE

Xmas Is Dawn Of Inner Freedom
Christopher Mendonca

Mary and Joseph, betrothed to each other in a loving relationship find themselves suddenly headed for Splitsville. Against the grain of human logic they transcend their own understanding of the events and walk together in faith. But it brings them even more pain and rejection. A supposed turning point becomes only more distressing as each chapter of their lives unfold. On a cold, wintry night in a stable, with only a few farm animals for company, a child is born. They have been consigned to the margins, turned away by those who have no place for this seemingly odd couple. The joy at the childs birth is overwhelming; they find their sufferings transformed, even irrelevant. Rustic shepherds mingle with the wise and learned without difficulty. Their differences are of no account as they wait to get a glimpse of the child. This unalloyed joy, however, does not preclude future inconvenience and disappointment. They will soon have to flee to Egypt to ensure their own safety. When they return, Mary is told by Simeon that her troubles have not ended; indeed they have only just begun. The suffering experienced by Mary and Joseph was not somehow obliterated by the birth of Jesus. If we think so, we run the risk of compounding the error by celebrating the event as the birthday of the Lord instead of experiencing it as the dawn of our own inner freedom. A birthday is a moment that can be remembered but never repeated. For the early church, Christmas was essentially the dawn of a new experience of the presence of God among us. It was not an object of celebration. In Christian theological terms Jesus is the Sacrament of God, the visible sign of invisible reality. It points to the difference between event and presence and invites us to go beyond illusion to realisation. To commemorate the first day of the human form of Jesus as an event is not the same as connecting to the presence of his kingdom within us. Hence Christmas does not appear as a feast in the Christian Calendar for quite a while. We genuinely celebrate Christmas only when we experience the joy which transforms our pain and suffering. It is not amnesia either. Our problems are not obliterated by celebrating Christmas for society is not remarkably different after a week of celebrations. There are some however, who. away from the merry-making at the inn, connect to the reality unfolding before them. Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, and the wise men all look beyond the event, not framing it according to their own perceptions in stark contrast to that of the inn-keeper who, in refusing Mary and Joseph his hospitality ,had closed himself to the experience of joy beyond the frenetic merrymaking at the inn through the night. Christmas allows us to transform our inner pain into joy. The pain in accepting our own sinful past gives way to the joy of repentance; the pain of being maligned, slighted and ill-treated generates the joy of being able to forgive; the suffering we experience as we encounter the homeless gives birth to the pure joy of giving. When this happens we know that while we celebrate the birth of Jesus, we have experienced the birth of the Saviour within; a joy that no one can take away from us because it is born not out of human stock or the urge of the flesh or the will of human beings, but of God himself (John 1:13). The author teaches meditation in the Christian tradition. cjwm1943@gmail.com

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