20161204 THE
CHRISTMAS SPIRIT IS SIMPLY THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST
Reading 1, Isaiah
11:1-10
2 On him will rest the spirit of Yahweh, the spirit of wisdom and insight, the spirit of counsel and power,
the spirit of knowledge and fear of Yahweh:
3 his inspiration will lie in fearing Yahweh.
His judgement will not be by appearances.
his verdict not given on hearsay.
4 He will judge the weak with
integrity and give fair sentence for the humblest in
the land. He will strike the country with
the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips bring death to the wicked.
6 The wolf will live with the lamb, the
panther lie down with the kid, calf, lion and fat-stock beast together, with a
little boy to lead them.
7 The cow and the
bear will graze, their young will lie down together. The
lion will eat hay like the ox.
9 No hurt, no harm will be done on all my holy
mountain, for the country will be full of knowledge of Yahweh as the waters cover the
sea.
10 That day, the root
of Jesse, standing as a signal for the peoples, will be sought out by the
nations and its home will be glorious.
Responsorial Psalm, Psalms
72:1-2, 7-8, 12-13, 17
1 [Of Solomon] God,
endow the king with your own fair judgement, the son of the king with your own
saving justice,
2 that he may rule
your people with justice, and your poor with fair judgement.
7 In his days
uprightness shall flourish, and peace in plenty till the moon is no more.
8 His empire shall
stretch from sea to sea, from the river to the limits of the earth.
12 For he rescues the
needy who calls to him, and the poor who has no one to help.
13 He has pity on the
weak and the needy, and saves the needy from death.
17 May his name be
blessed for ever, and endure in the sight of the sun. In him shall be blessed
every race in the world, and all nations call him blessed.
Gospel, Matthew
3:1-12
3 This was the man spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said: A voice of one that cries in the
desert, 'Prepare a way for the Lord, make his paths straight.'
4 This man John wore a garment made of camel-hair with a leather
loin-cloth round his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.
7 But when he saw a
number of Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism he said to them,
'Brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming retribution?
8 Produce fruit in keeping
with repentance,
9 and do not presume
to tell yourselves, "We have Abraham as our father,"
because, I tell you, God can raise children for Abraham from these stones.
10 Even now the axe
is being laid to the root of the trees, so that any tree failing to produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown on
the fire.
11 I baptise you in
water for repentance, but the one who comes after me is more powerful than I,
and I am not fit to carry his sandals; he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
12 His winnowing-fan
is in his hand; he will clear his threshing-floor
and gather his wheat into his barn; but the chaff he will burn in a fire that will never go out.'
Reading 2, Romans
15:4-9
4 And all these
things which were written so long ago were written so that we, learning
perseverance and the encouragement which the scriptures give, should have hope.
5 Now the God of perseverance and
encouragement give you all the same purpose, following the example of Christ Jesus,
6 so that you may
together give glory to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with one heart.
8 I tell you that
Christ's work was to serve the circumcised, fulfilling the truthfulness of God by carrying out the
promises made to the fathers,
9 and his work was
also for the gentiles, so that they should give glory to God for his faithful love; as scripture says: For this I
shall praise you among the nations and sing praise to your name.
THE CHRISTMAS SPIRIT
IS SIMPLY THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST
Christmas is
celebrated all over the world by most people regardless of religion. But for
many, Christmas can be celebrated without any inkling of who Christ is or even
what the celebration is all about. How can this be? How could such a universal
festival be celebrated without the subject of the feast, viz., the birth of
Christ, being known? Does this mean therefore that this festival is merely
reduced to a social festival that has no real significant meaning for them?
No, this is not true.
Of course, in some cases, Christmas is nothing else but a time to be merry and
to revel. But in many cases, perhaps, more than we think, those who celebrate
Christmas without knowing the historical Christ are actually celebrating His birth
and His person without explicitly recognizing it. Why do I say this? Because
although they might not acknowledge the historical Christ, surely in
celebrating Christmas as a time of love, peace and goodwill, a time of giving
and forgiving, they have indeed allowed the Spirit of Christ to live in them
and operate in them. In that sense, they, in a certain sense can be said to be
really celebrating Christmas.
Indeed, this is what
the scripture readings of today want to tell us. What is Christmas if not allowing
the Spirit of Christ to live in our hearts; to be imbued with the Spirit of
Christ in our lives? Yes, even for us as Christians, Christmas is not merely a
commemoration of a historical event, but we are celebrating an event that is
happening all the time in our lives, some days more intensely, other days less
intensely. To allow the Spirit of Christ to live in us is another way of saying
that Christmas is not simply about celebrating the birth of Christ 2000 years
ago but a real celebration of the birth of Christ in our hearts everyday of our
lives and in a special way at Christmas.
Consequently, we need
to ask ourselves whether this Spirit that is being given to us is received by
us. The urgent question that is posed to us in today’s lesson is simply: Do we
share in the Spirit of Christ, that is, the spirit of wisdom, insight, counsel,
power, knowledge, piety and fear of the Lord; the spirit of peace and right
relationships, like the wolf living at peace with the lamb – those qualities
listed by the Prophet Isaiah in the first reading. The reality is that unless
we have the Spirit of Christ in us, then Christmas would be just another social
celebration; it will be a celebration without the Spirit of Christ’s love,
peace and joy; but simply a celebration of the world’s spirit of
self-indugence, fear, selfishness, oppression and self-centeredness – those
sins that the Pharisees and the Sadducees are guilty of in today’s gospel
reading. If that is the case, then Christmas is no better than any other social
celebration. If we still find ourselves lacking peace and love and joy in our
hearts, then it is a clear sign that we have not imbibed the Spirit of Christ
yet.
So how can we share
in the Spirit of Christ? For us Christians, we are in a privileged position and
we should be thankful for this. Why do I say that we are a privileged people?
Because those who celebrate Christmas without knowing Christ are those who are
groping for happiness and peace in their lives without knowing the direction.
For them, it will be by trial and error, searching for someone who can guide
them to knowledge of the truth and the way to life. But for us, we need not
search anymore in one sense. For us, as the second reading tells us, we have
the scriptures, we have people and models who have gone before us, who have
paid the price for their search for God and have imparted their roadmap to us
and for us to find God. But most of all, we have Jesus Himself who is our way,
our truth and our life – He who is born fully of God and of man, who, as the
Paul tells us, is the glory of God. By following His example, we who are united
with Him in mind and voice will give glory to God as well in Him. For this
reason, we Christians can thank God for this beautiful privilege.
But what is the use of
having the roadmap to God and to life, if we do not make use of it at all? The
fact is that we all know we have the roadmap but we do not refer to it. It is
wasted on us. It Is real tragedy. For this reason, we must take heed of the
words of John the Baptist. We need to repent. To repent is not simply to
confess our sins but to acknowledge the situation we are in. It is to be aware
of what we are doing and how we are living – especially the vain ways of
living. It means, according to John the Baptist, to realize that we are saved
not by our kinship with Abraham or simply because we have been baptized as
Christians. No, John the Baptist tells us as he told the Pharisees that God can
raise children for Abraham from these stones. That is to say, just because we
are Christians do not mean that we are living the Spirit of Christ in us. So
repentance is acknowledgement of our folly and awareness of our foolish and
ignorant ways of living. So, the confession of sins is not a mere confession
with our lips but more importantly with our hearts. It is a confession that we
are living the spirit of the world and not the Spirit of God in our lives.
But this is not sufficient. The baptism
of repentance of John the Baptist is still incomplete. It is not enough to give
up our bad habits or foolish ways of living. Because when we give up something,
we create a void within ourselves. And every void must be filled and will be
filled again either with good or bad things. So before it is filled again, we
must ensure that we will not fill it with worse values in life; but we fill
them with the Spirit of Christ. That is why the baptism of repentance of John
the Baptist is only to prepare us for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. John the
Baptist therefore tells us that he is only baptizing us with water, that is the
water of repentance; but someone, namely Jesus, who is coming after him, is
more powerful than he is, that he is not even fit to undo the straps of His
sandals; He will baptize us with the Holy Spirit and fire.
This is it. This is
the key to the full meaning of Christmas. We are called to repent so that we
might appropriate the Spirit of Christ in us. It is Christ who will give us the
gifts of the Spirit. These gifts however must not be reduced to those tangible,
visible gifts like what we see or might have experienced in the charismatic
movements, namely, the gifts of tongues, healing, prophecy etc. Indeed, these
gifts are given to some members of the Christian community but not for
themselves as such. Rather, these gifts are given for the building of the Body
of Christ, the Christian community in love and service. Having those gifts
which are meant purely for the service of the community can sometimes make us
proud and indignant. That is why these are not the greatest gifts of the
Spirit.
But even more
important, are the gifts of the spirit of joy, love, peace, truth, wisdom, all
those gifts mentioned in the first reading and those fruits that Paul mentions
in his letter to the Galatians. These gifts do not make us egoistic, competitive
or proud. No, they make us truly loving, forgiving, non-judgmental and peaceful
people. Such gifts, as Paul tells us in the second reading, help us to treat
each other the way Christ treats us. More than that, these are the gifts that
really give us the fire of the Spirit – namely, the fire of life. It is faith,
hope, love and peace that make life vibrant, dynamic and alive. Only when we
live such vibrant lives, we can then claim to have the spirit of Christ in us –
filling us with enthusiasm and joy. With such spirited life in us, surely we
will also add fire to the lives of others around us, leading them to share the
spirit of Christ.
Let us not wait anymore. The time is
urgent; life is short. We need to make room for Jesus in our lives; we need to
give Him space so that His Spirit may fill us with His love and peace and joy.
If not, we will have a sad Christmas, or at most a pleasurable but empty
Christmas. The supposed spirit of life that we happen to have at Christmas will
just last for the day and then everything will be back to where we started,
just like the drunkard person who suffers a hang-over the next day.
No, if we do not want
to be the inn that has no place for Jesus when He comes knocking at our doors
at Christmas, then let us give ourselves to serious prayer, self-examination
and reflection, asking from the Lord His Spirit to purify us and to baptize us
unto His death – the death to oneself, one’s ego, cravings and
self-centeredness and complacency. For in the process of dying, we will
experience the rebirth taking place in us. Christmas then, would not just be on
Christmas Day, but has already begun, and is still taking place, especially in
a powerful way on Christmas Day. Yes, Christmas for us cannot be a mere single
day’s celebration but it must be a reality every moment in our lives. And it is
so, if we allow Christ to be reborn again and again in our lives. Thus, for us,
every day will be Christmas. Of course, every day can be Christmas only because
we celebrate Christmas Day, that day when God’s love becomes real for us in
Jesus.
Written by The Most
Rev William Goh Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved
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