Today, the “Merry Christmas” greeting will resound, worldwide, with many people wishing each other the blessings of this festival.
Today, the “Merry Christmas” greeting will resound, worldwide, with many people wishing each other the blessings of this festival. However, while many are “merry”, most people are unsure what “Christmas” really means and demands for those seeking to be Christ’s disciples.
“Christmas” etymologically derives from two words: Christ and Missa. Christ comes from the Greek, Kristos, meaning, “the Anointed One”, and missa from Latin, meaning “to be sent”. Loosely translated, Christmas would mean: “Sending of the Anointed One”. Saint John succinctly summarises the core of Christmas, writing, “God so loved the world that he sent his only Son, Jesus, to save the world.
If someone’s drowning in a pond, you can save him/her: (a) By giving instructions from outside on how one should beat ones’ hands and feet to save oneself; (b) By throwing a rope or lifebuoy so that one can cling to it and be pulled out; (c) By diving into the pond and supporting the drowning person, bringing him/her to safety.
God’s sending of Christ, the anointed one, is like the third way where God descends into the world’s whirlpool, so to say, to lift us up and provide possibilities for a fuller life.
In his commentary On the Incarnation, Saint Athanasius wrote: “God became man so that man might become God.” Christmas is also called the feast of the “Incarnation” (from Latin for “taking flesh”). When God assumes a human body in order to show humankind how to be more godly and good. Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem amidst the most wretched of circumstances — inhospitality, poverty, homelessness, misery, rejection, threat to life — tells us that God is accessible to everyone. Later, Jesus will befriend and save the lowly, lonely, last and lost.
At Christ’s birth, Bethlehem’s shabby stable radiated love, joy and peace because of many “anointed ones” who felt that they were “sent”. Impelled by love, Mary, Jesus’ mother, and Joseph, his foster-father, shepherds and wise men from the East went about doing ordinary deeds in an extraordinary way. Therein lay the beauty of that first Christmas with angels proclaiming: “Glory to God, and peace to all people of goodwill!”
Christmas merriment is meaningful only as overflow of the inner joy of “being Christ-mas”: anointed and sent out! Indeed, the costliest Christmas present you can gift to others is your presence. Spending Christmas in Chennai, I’m glad to meet school kids asking their parents not to spend on gifts and celebrations, but to donate that money to flood-victims. A priest-friend has been housing over a hundred homeless flood-victims in his church premises. These devotees exemplify the essence of Christmas. May God’s sending of Christ, send us too, as incarnations of love, joy and peace! Merry Christmas!
Francis Gonsalves is a professor of theology. He can be contacted at fragons@gmail.com
