Do
you know that “A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to You" was the
verse that was shown on the first commercially available Christmas card in
1843. Christmas has always been known to be a season of merriment and happiness.
But why? Is it because of the gifts,
the food, or the persons around us?
In
my last week’s homily, I ended with the story of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” Just a recap. There is this mean
green monster called the Grinch who lives on a hill and below is a village
called Whoville where the
inhabitants were busy preparing for Christmas wrapping gifts, cooking food, and
singing carols merrily and happily.
The Grinch however is bothered and always
awakened from sleep by their noise. So he thought that if he would steal all
their gifts and food, they would sing no more since they would no longer be
merry and happy, and he will be left in peace to sleep. So that night he
dressed like Santa and dropped down all their chimneys, but instead of leaving
a gift, he was stealing their gifts and their food. So he waited for the
following morning expecting the people to be sad and quiet. But the people of Whoville continued to sing
their Christmas carols. And this kept the Grinch wondering because He thought
their happiness and merriment was tied to their gifts. Then these lines from
the book follow:
“Then
the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before!
What
if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store.
What
if Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more!”
Christmas
means a little bit more? Let me tell you my personal experience. And today I
want you to remember yours also. When I
was a small child I always looked forward to Christmas mornings because every
time I would wake up, I will rush to the Christmas tree open my Christmas
presents, savor the once a year delicious Christmas food, and enjoy the company
of my big family which reunites that time of the year. I was happy, there were
gifts, there was food, and there were persons who shower me with love.
Fastforward
when I was a seminarian, Christmas eve: there were no more gifts obviously,
there was still food, and there were my fellow seminarians. I was still happy.
As a priest I was assigned to this faraway very poor parish at the foot of a
mountain in the Philippines with Fr Mario and another priest. It was our first
year of pioneering there. Christmas eve: we had no presents, we had no food
(except coca-cola and crackers), but we had each other enjoying the Coke and
crackers under the moonlight counting all the stars. We were still happy.
A
few years after, I was assigned in a parish in a jungle in Papua New Guinea. It
was my first Christmas where I had to walk 30 kms to a very far village - walking
with only my slippers and my bare feet practically the whole day of the 24th
- just to be able to celebrate Christmas mass the following morning there. All
the food I had was in my knapsack. Christmas eve: no presents, no food, all
alone in the small hut. But was I happy? Maybe yes, maybe not (To tell you the truth, I was homesick.) But as I lay
awake in bed that night, I felt something else… joy…. I understood probably for
the first time that Christmas is not all about me, whether I will be happy or
not- ‘cause happiness is fleeting… it is about him. And that is Joy…
Did
you know that Isaac Watts in 1719
did not write Joy to the World to be
a Christmas song. The original theme of this song was the second coming of the
Lord. You see, Christmas won’t always be a happy time, happiness is a feeling
that comes and goes but joy that is different – joy stays in your heart . For when Jesus comes back, even the fields and floods, rocks, hills, and
plains will repeat the sounding joy.
And
this reminded me: I was not there in
that village to make me or the villagers happy, I was there to tell them: Joy to the world! the Savior reigns. He
rules the world with truth and grace.
In short I was there to tell them of the
wonders, the wonders of his love.
Only
with that, I have personally fulfilled the passage of Isaiah 52 today: “How beautiful upon the mountains are the
feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces
“Joy to the world” because your God, your Savior reigns.”
I
do this because Jesus by becoming a child today has fulfilled this prophecy of
Isaiah ahead of me. I could only but follow him because as John would put it:
Today “the Word became flesh and lived
among us. And now we see his glory, the glory as of a father’s only begotten
son, full of grace and truth.”
I
observed a certain Christmas tradition among Asians. On that part of the world,
after the Christmas mass, the child Jesus would be carried in front, and young
and old would line up to kiss Jesus and greet him a Happy Birthday. Well that’s
normal, you would think. But then I noticed that people would not kiss the
cheek or the hand of the child…. Majority would kiss the feet…. I really never
knew why. But today I realize it really must be because it fulfills the passage
from Isaiah:
“How beautiful are the feet of the One
who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation (Joy to the
world) because your God, your Savior reigns.”
You
know sometimes we glamorize this passage. Beautiful feet do not really mean clean
and manicured feet. One who goes up and down the mountains to bring news will
definitely have his feet dirty, sweaty, tired, bruised, and stinky. Those are
the feet of the messenger. Those are the feet of Christ. Even at that manger
where he was born, his parents after miles and miles of travel, the animals
with all their dirt and dung, the trough where the animals drink…boy was the
real manger where Jesus was born really stinky. But was it beautiful. Yes. And
this is telling us that today God, the Word, so divine, so eternal, so sublime,
so heavenly -becomes flesh – so small, so helpless, so stinky, so ugly, so
limited as nature… and yet oure song ends with: And heaven and nature sing, and heaven and nature sing (3x). Because
today heaven and nature are united in Jesus. ‘The Word became flesh’ – the divine
becomes human, and the sublime gets stinky feet – and heaven and nature
continues to sing.
And
now we all have reason for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. And that my
dear friends is my wish for all of us today.
References:
Brukett,
C. (2013). PreacherRhetorica. http://www.preacherrhetorica.com/christmas-day-homily1.html
Dr
Seuss. (1957). How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
Felix,
D. (2012). Mental_floss http://mentalfloss.com/article/26650/first-christmas-card-was-sent-1843
Kalis,
R. Joy Bringer Ministries. “ Hymn.” Accessed December 22, 2014. http://joy-bringer-ministries.org/hymn1.html