How much we all love Christmas, especially the season of Christmas, the days counting towards Christmas, what to get for our wives, children, friends, and what we gave them last year to make sure they don't get presents similar to the previous ones, etc.
And how much we like to put those (if we could find them) annual Christmas carols CDs and play them on our way to work, at home, and just sing along gleefully as the singers croon the melodic songs away.
And the last minute shopping for wares that are put on shelves in shopping centres only once a year, and oops, not to forget the extra gift wrappers, after paying for all the decors for the tree, the walls, and wherever else we could put up those decors left over unbroken from last year..
Mothers would compete themselves over which cookies would eventually triumph over previous ones and remember a little too late to have made the fruitcake with rum so they would taste better.
It's all so wonderful, and so touching to see the joy and excitement in our children and spouses when opening the presents after midnight Mass, to see the warmth exchange of presents among friends and relatives. Oh, it truly is a wonderful time.
Christians would celebrate the birth of Jesus into the world in which we are all enslaved, and He offers a new hope to us, hope which even the blind could see and reach out to.
Somewhere in our little world, within the confines of which we claim as our neighbourhood, our workplace, even the part of the world in which we would travel through daily commuting to our office from home, if we would but pause just for a minute, there is a tiny voice, out there in this somewhere, a voice that calls out for justice and peace. Not for justice from oppression of rights, nor for peace in a war-torn zone. But justice for the state of poverty in which this person, whose voice is calling out, has no means whatsoever to overcome. The burden of feeding his family of four, or seven. Or even finding a roof for himself.
Or that old woman in our parish who keeps asking for sustenance of one kind or other but upon sensing her approach we would pretend to be headed the other way. Or the kids in our Sunday School whose frequent absence in classes is always the subject our scrutiny and disapproval just because we were not told the state of their broken family. Or that girl whose dressing is the butt of jokes among the kids claiming that she only has a 3-day wardrobe turnaround but it's because she really cannot afford to expand it.
What about the office worker at our workplace who offer to do errands on our behalf for just a few bucks, like paying the summons, paying for our credit cards, sending personal documents, and we even have to put on an attitude and haggle on the 'fee'.
You just need to open your hearts, and not ears, and listen to these cries, these longings cried out from within them, seeking for justice for the state in which they are in, the longing for peace in a broken family due to poverty, not only in monetary but poor in spirit and in morale.
Why not include these people in our Christmas gift list of recipients? Why not set aside some portion of our weekly groceries, pack them in a box and give it to a family who cannot afford but still deserves to see their children being fed well? How about tipping that colleague much higher for seeing that your personal documents get delivered safely and promptly? And what about wiping away that girl's tears by giving her your best but never used clothes?
How about if you start doing it this Christmas? Never too late. Better still, why do it just this Christmas and every Christmas, but do it as long as God is giving you the luxury of enjoying the good things in life? How about that challenge, huh?
