The other side of Christmas?
“May Christmas give us the time to not just celebrate the resilience of the human spirit but remind us that suffering, great suffering, still exists and we have a role to play in mending the woundedness of our fellow men.”
Some of us are probably excited as we receive gifts after gifts, greeting after greeting. Tomorrow is the day we have been looking forward to when Filipino families would gather together for Noche Buena — a midnight feast on December 24 where traditional and delicious dishes are served.
But for many families, the thought of Christmas evoke sadness and deep longing. Many have lost family members from Covid-19, where the cheers and familiar voices will be remarkably absent from their tables. Some do not have work and are struggling to just put food on the table. Some are spending their nights in the lonely corners of the hospital in agony, after frustrating test results showing their worsening condition. Some are in a state of shock after being diagnosed with a terminal illness. Some of us will spend Christmas alone, choosing to avoid further contagion of the pandemic.
For many years I have tried to understand what Christmas truly means. After being diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease — an auto-immune condition in the digestive system — I understood how human suffering is so central to our existence. The same is true for Christmas. In fact, human suffering is at the core of all these celebrations. Out of love so powerful, God humbled himself and became man to redeem us of our wounded existence. So that we will achieve life eternal and save us from being doomed to suffer unto eternity. In this we are called to partake in redeeming humanity, not out of our brokenness but out of love.
Christmas as a call to action
The pandemic and the disasters that happened this year have made us brutally aware of how powerful non-human factors can shake the foundations of our institutions and way of life despite the advances we made in science, technology and the arts. We have also seen how the pandemic widened the polar extremes in our already divided society. How some people of influence used it as an excuse to accumulate power to crush dissent, using legal means that do not have just ends. How disasters became an opportunity to enrich the few at the expense of many. How so many good people have chosen the path of convenience and safety while society drowns with inhumanity.
And yet through it all we also saw the power of solidarity within and among countries. Ordinary people working to mend the brokenness in creation in every crevaces and corners where need arose. Fundraising campaigns brought people and institutions together. Where previously they were unknown to each other, service united them in multiple and innovative ways. In the early months when the might of science was unmatched with the mystery and viciousness of this disease, we turned on to each other and again reminded ourselves that compassion and understanding have places in the human heart. Where previously the pace and breadth of our highly connected and complex world have deafened our conscience and seemed to have mechanized our understanding of who we are.
This Christmas we reflect on those moments when we were called to comfort our neighbors, reached out to strangers, shared a call for help on social media, donated our hard earned money to those in the frontlines or said a prayer to our God or wish to the universe. How those who lost a loved one clung to those who remained, finding togetherness in loss. Some have wished to mourn in silence. Some continue to suffer and wish the end is near…and life will get better.
May Christmas give us the time to not just celebrate the resilience of the human spirit but remind us that suffering, great suffering, still exists and we have a role to play in mending the woundedness of our fellow men. A kind gesture, a little understanding, sending help for others instead of buying expensive gifts, staying connected and asking how our friends and families are or being one call or text away. By being there for others we let grace overflow in our lives and transmit it to others. This is not redemption through our own work. But grace that transforms our “within” and manifests “without” — in the outside — through our actions. Grace is not an abstraction or independent of action, action is intrinsic to it causing humanity to act out of love.
In this great conundrum, we realize how human suffering is not actually the other side of Christmas. It is fundamental to why we celebrate Christmas and we have a role to play in liberating our fellowmen from it.
