Reflections
God has come to dwell among us
Fr. Emmanuel Uppamthadathil msfs
Happy Christmas and a bright new year! Let the New Year find you in good health, wealth and Peace!

God has come to dwell among us. He is Emmanuel for He is with us. Let us, therefore, rejoice and celebrate the birth of Christ, the Christmas!

The story of Christmas is a story of God's identification with the human beings. Once there was a little boy named Tom, who loved everything in this world. He would not harm or injure any living beings, not even an insect. One day, as he was making a stroll around his farm land after a night of heavy rain, he noticed a group of ants about to be sunk in a patch of water that was gathered during the rain. Moved with compassion for the ants the little boy thought of saving these little creatures of God by making a bridge over the patch of water. He took a big stick for the same purpose but the ants seeing a big person – though Tom was a little boy, for the ants he was huge indeed- with a bigger stick in his hand were frightened and amidst the confusion that followed all the ants were drowned. Tom was really sad, because, in spite of his intense love for the ants he could not save even a single ant. Tom narrated the whole incident to his dad. Dad seeing the innocence of the child told him, "Tom, perhaps you could save all those ants if you could become another ant." (The ants by nature follow the first one). This is Christmas. God has become just like one of us, to lead us from front for our salvation. Yahweh was the living God of Israel. He was the God of Israel because He has chosen the people of Israel as His own. The covenantal relationship between Yahweh and the people, though, had its own ups and downs; God's love for the people of Israel was very ostensible. He appeared to them in various forms and names. It could be in the form of fire seething out from the bush, or like the most resplendent light on the mount Sinai., He could manifest Himself like the forceful thunder or like the cooling cloud under the scorching sun in the desert. Whatever, I always feel the God of Israel was like the little Tom, Tremendous love gone waste! Whenever God appeared to people in love and because of love, people either ran away from His presence or hid their face in whatever manner they could. Like Tom, Yahweh too was awfully disappointed. Yahweh told to himself , " enough is enough, I must explore ways and means to communicate myself appropriately to my people, so that they understand me, understand my love for them". A genius that He is, He knew that an effective communication demands identification, (knowing is by becoming/like knows the like) the result of such identification is Christmas, God willingly shared human nature by which He reduced the huge chasm between the finite and the infinite, the human and divine. God in Jesus Christ is no more an object of fear but and embodiment of sublime love and love that is easily accessible and understood. If there was a running away from the love of God, in the Old Testament, The New Testament is a reversal of the order. People were thronging to Him, because he was the good news, the love well expressed.

The problems of the contemporary world are largely due to our inability to identify ourselves to the needs of the people. We are happy settling ourselves in the having culture, if I am allowed to use a Marceline concept, rather than allowing ourselves to be in the being culture. Having culture is a culture where one tries to amass more than what he or she needs. In such a culture we build walls, makes distinctions between people on the basis of power, money, learning, authority and race. In this culture it is always a tussle between the "haves" and the "have nots". The being culture is a culture of transcendence. We break the shackles of selfishness, to bridge ourselves to the other in pure expression of love. It is condescending from our mighty ego, as God condescended from divine to human, to a level of simplicity and openness. In this level there is identity, there is love, there is joy and there is equality. Let the Almighty allow us to experience these virtues in this season of Christmas and every days of the coming year!



Suvidya College, Electronic City P.O, Bangalore, 560 100
Copy Right © www.Suvidya.org