Thoughts on the advent of the season

by Jeannette CABRAAL

Another year has almost evaporated and glamorous advertisements in the media, posters, shopping guides flamboyantly flash the message and jolt us into the reality that another Christmas is upon us. The message of the commercial world, of the spending, eating, drinking, clothing, merry-making binges of luxury and super extravagance simply screams out. This message gets across amply locally and globally for it has many adherents.

But what of the message of Christmas? The message of peace that should find a rousing echo in the hearts and minds of the faithful, the objective of the Christ Child's birth in a straggly stable, bereft of the basic meagre privileges of a new-born babe - which after all, is what Christmas is about. This message is submerged. Christ is on a low key, everything else takes priority. Who will get across this message so unpalatable in contrast to the gourmand fantasies that assail us during the season.

Today, the goodwill, the peace, that should accompany the celebration of the great event of the birth of the Prince of Peace seems distorted beyond redemption. Competition, glamour, merriment, complexes, have taken its place and a warped view of Christmas has assailed the world.

War cries of hatred 'blow in the wind' arrows of flint whizz in the air in place of the guiding star, symbolic of enlightenment and peace that should illuminate not only the crib but also our hearts. Nation against nation, community against community, brother against brother, the rancour goes on unabated.

No peace or goodwill around us, no peace or goodwill within us. Yet ironically the celebration goes on with a bang!

He, was prince, no doubt, But the Prince of Peace, of the poor of the degraded, of the neglected, not the Prince of ostentation. The very kings who visited him in their curious search, in their rich attire, bearing valuable precious gifts were reduced to humble adoration, to meekness, to the realisation of the hollow mockery that was their position on viewing this birth.

The poverty manifested at this birth has its overtones in society. Today many are pauperised for no fault of their own. The chagrin, the unpredictability, the uncertainty of war, have rendered thousands homeless. Their status reduced to that of refugees, undergoing similar or worse hardships than that experienced in the stable. Do we care?

The inequality in society that has created a yawning abysmal gap that is ever widening. Some luxuriating in merriment and carousal to hail the birth of a babe born in a hovel; others grovelling even below the poverty line. Is it our concern? Christmas with its materialistic connotation of a surfeit of food provides us much food for thought too. One is reminded of the Biblical story of Dives and Lazarus. In this season of satiation and glamour, opulence and merriment do we for a moment think of how the other half survives. Where is our praise, our gratitude to bountiful providence for the mercies we have received or is it that since we are not the ones affected we turn to our affairs, we couldn't careless.

Christ the main figure in Christmas is indeed relegated to the stable; the stables of refugee camps, the stables that are shanties and hovels, the stables that for many constitute the hard pavements of the asphalt jungles. On second thoughts, perhaps not as hard as the impenetrable hearts of unfeeling fellowmen.True, we also venture forth on our annual binge of giving. The once a year generosity. Giving does not again imply one's cast away clothing, items one has been accumulating the year round, to dispose of to some charitable organisation and rest satisfied that one has fulfilled an obligation. The giving has to cost something, it should be a deprivation, a sacrifice, one has to feel it.

A peep into the crib is rightly a peep into our hearts. It makes us pause, think, effect a change. A difficult task, midst the tugging attractions, the temptations of the season but nevertheless a humane one, which makes us identify ourselves with the reality of that birth in the stable.