We are called to live in hope

If we venture into any mall in town during Christmas, chances are we would be assailed with tinsel decorations and a tall Christmas tree decorated with flickering lights below which lie gift boxes wrapped with colourful paper.

Dec 18, 2014

Anil Netto

By Anil Netto
If we venture into any mall in town during Christmas, chances are we would be assailed with tinsel decorations and a tall Christmas tree decorated with flickering lights below which lie gift boxes wrapped with colourful paper.

Over the PA system, we might hear Christmas carols tugging at our heart strings as we do some last minute shopping for friends and relatives.

But, behind the outward manifestation of the festive celebration lie some serious concerns.

For all their efforts, as people’s purchasing power declines, shopping malls have recorded a slide in sales in urban centres (yet, more than a dozen new malls are expected to be launched in the Klang Valley in the coming year). This is just one symptom of an ailing economy.

Other challenges lie ahead: the shrill voices of the ethno-nationalist groups and the apparent attempts to change the nature of the country from what was outlined in the Federal Constitution, and the problems that have arisen. Now, even hymn books meant for the Orang Asli community, which have been used for three decades, are seized.

Many ordinary people are bracing for the difficult times ahead, as socio-political problems arise in tandem with economic ones. If even the midde-class are feeling the pinch and facing the coming year with some trepidation, what more the marginalised groups, the senior citizens and retirees, the low-wage workers and those without regular incomes.

It is in this context that we celebrate Christmas this year — in a sense, not too dissimilar from the time when Jesus was born two millennia ago, the only difference,perhaps, being the degree of poverty, repression and household debt.

Despite the tech gadgets and other trappings of modernity, much of humanity is at the mercy of forces beyond its control — or so it seems. The incarnation reminds us that we believe in a God who cares deeply for people and the rest of creation.

Jesus entered the world so that we “may have life and have it to the full” (John 10:10). He left his Spirit behind to empower us and teach us all things. During his earthly life, Jesus bore witness to the Father through his deeds and words. His compassion, his concern for righteousness, his concern for the downtrodden, the marginalised and the excluded, were all manifestations of divine love and justice.

In Jesus, the justice and love of the Father — the essence of God — was incarnated in human form. No wonder that set off a theological debate that lasted several centuries. How do you explain something like that?

But the simple folks who encountered Jesus simply believed in what they saw, heard, felt. They didn’t need theologians to explain what they had encountered. When you are in the presence of the divine — when you see divine Love and Justice in action — when you see the Word in the flesh, human words are unlikely to be enough.

Today, in the midst of so much anxiety and worry, as we are faced with forces that want to restrict our freedom to be fully alive, we need not despair.

In Jesus, on Christmas, we are reminded in a special way — if we need reminding — that God is not a distant god. In Jesus, he continues to manifest himself in personal form to us.

He gives hope to a world with little reason to hope. At the same time, God relies on ordinary persons to be his presence in a world darkened by injustice and despair.

Perhaps we should look beyond the flickering lights on the Christmas tree to see the many signs of hope flickering among us — the letter of the 25 moderate Muslims, the supportive response from dozens of civil society groups within the Gabungan Bertindak Malaysia (GBM), the actions of university students filled with idealism for a different kind of Malaysia, the witness of the many groups working with the vulnerable and the marginalised for a more compassionate society.

Wishing you all a joyful and hope-filled Christmas!

Total Comments:0

Name
Email
Comments