Throughout history we come across great men and women, who have changed its
course. They have been catalysts and acted like magnets to
humanity. If one group loved them, another hated them.
The change in historical events directly relates to the number of people who
have been influenced by them. Among the people who have been such
catalysts, Jesus Christ seems to have influenced the maximum number of
people in the world, over the past two millennia. Faith in Him has driven
the creative energy of people in Theology, Philosophy, Art, Music,
Architecture and Science. In other words, all spheres of human
endeavor.
The irony is that in Jesus Christ, we see the exact opposite of
human expectations. According to the value system of ordinary
humans, Jesus was the most disadvantaged person. He was born
poor, in an insignificant part of an occupied country, and His parents had to
fulfill the dictate of the occupiers and travel, at great trouble to themselves,
from the north of the country to Bethlehem, just to register their family
so that the Occupiers could draw up the census of their subjects.
The poor parents got a raw deal from their fellow Jews, who in the normal
inclinations of people preferred richer clientele and guests at their inns, and
taking a look at the parents of Jesus, decided there was no place for them in
their company. The people who sheltered them were poor as they
were, but good people at heart. They were
shepherds.
If a Hollywood script writer was given the job of scripting this scene, he
would have had different ideas, as he would work out his script from human
values and behavior patterns. But the values which God wanted
to impart to us, were quite different, and it is because He wanted to convey a
message to us, that He saw to it, that Jesus would be disadvantaged not only at
His birth but throughout His life, until the cruel end which could have
been devised by the human mind. In spite of all these 'disadvantages', He
attracted the maximum number of people, and one wonders how this was
possible. It could have been so, only because it was the plan
of God..
People of all political persuasions who follow Christ, pick
and choose His precepts according to their own ideas and
convenience. Though Christ in His own wisdom, decided to form
the human community of his followers in a particular way, by appointing 12
apostles, and giving them power to organize it, with St. Peter at the helm,
humans have thought that they could do better and started dismantling what he
had started and formed communities in their own image, and suiting their
predilections, promoting themselves through every available media, with great
rhetoric, pomp and splendor, which draws great crowds to them . Unfortunately,
they may end up like many others who have come up like them and gone
away. It is only those who follow Him without questioning His
methods, have become Saints, and worthy of human admiration.
People who bandy the "Word of God" - may find no 'words' to quote, in
the story of Bethlehem, but only a shining example. Should we be
affected by it ? Should be learn anything from it ?
As this is the time when each of us should introspect as to what
choice we should make, regarding our own life. We have to give to
Caesar what is his, just as His parents obeyed him by going for the census, but
give to God what belongs to Him. The option is between the
choices of the rich Innkeeper and the Shepherd.
May we hope that we will be given the strength to make the right choice.
The word for Christmas in late Old English is Cristes Maesse, the Mass
of Christ, first found in 1038, and Cristes-messe, in
1131. Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the
Church. The first evidence of the feast is from Egypt. About
A.D. 200.
In Cyprus, at the end of the fourth century, Epiphanius asserts against the
heretics that Christ was born on 6 January and baptized on 8 November.
From the fourth century every Western calendar assigns Feast of the Nativity
of our Lord to 25 December. At Rome, then, the Nativity was celebrated on
25 December before 354; in the East, at Constantinople, not before 379
On the right hand top corner is a search engine: Select Genre:
Religious, then reselect Christian, and then in the bottom box, type Christmas,
and it will take you to the Christmas music stations.
If you like Konkani music, you select the genre: Asian, first, then Folk, and
then in the search box type: KONKANI and it will take you to the station
operated by Goa World.
You can be a member, by giving a userid, email and a password, and then once
it is activated, you can put your sections on Presets.
You can download their free radio player, which will pop up each time you
click on the selection "listen' icon.
Mangaloreans are familiar with the cribs in the parish churches and
homes. Until recently, we in Mangalore, were not aware of the custom of
having Christmas Trees.
I would like to recall, how my elder sister, who was 15 years old then, had
come home from Mangalore. In 1939 we had a rented house in Puttur,
where m father was teaching in the Board High School.
She prepared a crib, from items available in the house. She used
the dining table as the platform, made mountains out of newspapers, Coloured
with a mixture of ash and chimney soot, but crumpling these when they were dry,
to make jagged mountain sides. She made a running stream, out
of the home enema can, letting the water flow down a mountain path, covered with
clay from the field close by. The water was collected in a basin
whose sides with camouflaged with grass patches from the fields. She used
my mother's blue saree as a back drop for the sky, and splattered it with silver
stars, cut out of the silver foil that came with the cigar boxes of my
father. It was the last Christmas we spent in Puttur, as in the
following year we were back in Mangalore, and lived for six years in Jeppu, in
another rented house. The picture of this crib is
faintly implanted in my mind.
The other crib was in St. Joseph's Seminary Church, in Jeppu, where the
Italian brothers would make every year an electrified crib, which was attracting
many visitors. They had the ebbing of day and night worked out by
dimming lights in the grotto. Village homes will have light one
minute and then as the shepherds go to sleep, the lights would go
off. The crib will becoming bright, at the time, Christ was supposed
to be born. Then the daylight would come and again, the cycle will
repeat on and on.
Another important event during this month was the preparation of the
Christmas Sweets. Every family who grew in Mangalore will remember
the days that went preparing them. I have put the recipes of these
sweets in the category Mangalore: under Sweets. Have a look.
Under the main menu, Church Music, you will see two sections, Choral Music
and Catholic Hymns. If you have downloaded the Finale
Notepad software, which you get free of charge, and it is quite a small file,
you can view the music score, hear the music play on your speakers, print the
music as a music sheet on your printer, and send it to others who may like
music, by providing them this link.
Everyone will start preparations for the Christmas festivities, and I hope
the recipes I have provided will come in handy. While you prepare
your spiritual side, may you also pamper yourselves with little material
happiness.
May you and your families be showered with God's choicest blessings, and may
this year will be an extraordinary year in your lives.
