“A voice cries out in the wilderness:
Prepare the way of the Lord.
Make straight in the desert
a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be lifted up
and every mountain and hill shall be made low.
The uneven ground shall become level,
and the rough places a plain.
Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed.”
(Isaiah 40:3-5)
For years, this passage has been with me whenever I think of Christmas.
To level the playing field. Indeed, the message of Christmas is a message of justice. Years ago, especially in religious circles, we referred to this as “preferential option for the poor”, poor not only materially but also those who are poor in many different ways. Nowadays, we hear and speak about reaching out to the least, the last and the lost.
All through the gospels, we see Jesus taking the side of the deprived and the helpless; the widows, the sick, the outcasts, the sinners, the women…all those looked down upon in the self righteous, patriarchal society of first century Palestine. To this he brought a new way of seeing things, a vastly different way of valuing, a different perspective, a new paradigm. He took what were held inviolable and sacrosanct in his day and turned them upside down. His teachings were revolutionary: the first shall be last, authority as service, man before the Sabbath. He spoke vehemently against injustice. He worked tirelessly to eliminate evil in all its forms: sin, sickness, isolation.
We, as Christians, are called to do likewise; to make Christmas happen, to respond to the call of justice; to level the playing field.
We start with the hard questions: why the phenomenon of the forever casual employee with no job security? Why is the Filipino labor our number one export to the sacrifice of the Filipino family? Are we only a democracy in theory but an oligarchy in reality? Why is the Philippines still poor? Why are there still groups marginalized in our own Church?
Christmas comes in different packages; when we choose a simpler lifestyle in the
awareness that the goods we squander belong to someone else; in the reasonable wages and benefits that are considered earned by virtue of charity if not of law; by choosing inconvenience over paying our way out of a traffic violation.
Culturally, this is a big challenge for us. We have to rediscover, individually, and as a people our collective conscience, that sensitivity to what is right and what is wrong, what is illegal and what is immoral. Values have been compromised often enough so that wrong is not only tolerated as norm but accepted as “SOP (standard operating procedure)”. We see this in our private lives and more blatantly in government. Nobody is exempt. Christmas happens when we humbly accept that we are all in need of conversion. Because we are all tainted.
I cannot accept that our culture is inherently corrupt. I grant though, that it is easily corruptible. We are deeply, passionately, communitarian. We have to constantly strive to delineate boundaries, physical and otherwise, lest we trespass against persons and /or property. It is a strong temptation to hold as ours what was given only in trust. Christmas happens when integrity takes precedence over personal relationships; when we realize that what we sometimes call kindness is actually timidity and when we finally muster the courage to speak up when we have to.
In a few months, we take to the polls. Once again, we, as a people are at the crossroads. But Christmas happens when we try to educate ourselves and others on the candidates’ backgrounds and stances on different issues. Christmas is in those groups, especially volunteers who sacrifice time and effort and sometimes limb to guard the sanctity of the ballot. Finally, Christmas is in us, when we claim one of our most treasured rights and responsibilities as citizens, as voters who are truly informed, honest and free.
God is always calling. But how do we know how to respond in our day to day living? It is different for each of us. He did not leave us with a detailed blueprint, but He gave us something more, a gold standard. Let us look up at the Christmas Star and follow where it leads…to the manger, to the Christ Child. And only in finding Him, do we begin to know.
A most Blessed Christmas to one and all!
Dr. Luz Torres-Hecker attends to patients during a medical mission in Candaba, Pampanga
* Note: Dr. Luz Torres-Hecker is the Coordinator of the Volunteer Doctors' Group at the Holy Rosary Parish (Angeles City).
