Christmas as a Decision to Love
Christmas day is a decisive day, a day to make some tough decisions. Every decision we make is either for God or against God. There is no neutral ground. Life is never neutral. There is no third possibility. Either we live in and with God or we do not. And if we sincerely feel that we do not, then we can always go back to the divine path. Every decisive day is a joyful day if we know how to discern in God. Decision-making is not a reason for fear and trembling.
Every crisis is a spiritual opportunity for us to deepen our character and broaden our horizon; the deeper the crisis, the greater the opportunity. Every day we need to make a decision to follow Jesus Christ and each subsequent day we need to renew, reinstate and reiterate that decision for to follow Christ is an ongoing decision.
If humanity is to progress, Christ is inevitable. No one can kick him out of history. Jesus restores in us our capacity to love for he is the true lover par excellence. Jesus is the sinless one (Sebastian Moore) for he gives us back our capacity to love. Sin blocks our true nature which is to grow in love.
Jesus has called us out of bondage, out of captivity, out of idolatry. The one who loves mostly is the freest innermostly. The one who loves freely lives joyfully. Christ is closer to us than we are to ourselves. In Christ, there is true freedom and there is no any other source of freedom except in Christ. Military victories cannot restore real freedom. Christ is our true freedom. To restore and to maintain freedom, people need to live like Christ.
Love indwells amongst us, takes flesh in the midst of us. Love makes its tent amongst us. Love makes a permanent abode in our slums, shanties, and shabby shelters in order never to leave us. One does not need to be a holy person to recognize it. A sinner’s recognition of this truth is the beginning of a new prospect of a new life.
It is true that people seldom change or some will never change significantly. We need to look at such people very sympathetically and not judgementally. Even if they do not want to change, they deserve our love, patience and sympathy. It is true that people are lazy, selfish, complacent, greedy, evil, cruel, vengeful, hateful, arrogant, stupid, silly, idiotic, loathsome, banal, ruthless, lustful and weak. But still we have to love them precisely because people are such.
The divinity of Jesus is not a separate reality but hidden, contained deep within his humanity. Humility is another name for humanity. Humility is not timidity or backwardness or feebleness. It is born of innermost freedom, strength and magnanimity of one’s character. Humility is the virtue of the brave, the strongest and the courageous. A weakling can never radiate it or practise it. Pride is the existential condition of the weakling. That is precisely why humility is such a rare virtue amongst us humans.
This is the conclusion of Professor Anton Meemana’s article on Christmas. It is an honor for me to have known such a remarkable and wonderful human being. Like Christ from birth up to His final years on earth the persecutions He encountered did not deter him to find the value of His birth, life and death.
Professor Meemana is very much alive after having his name constantly in the roster of established critics of the Sri Lankan government. His flight to the Philippines during the height of the methodical arrest and execution (that includes lynching) of any oppositionist was unmistakably miraculous and providential. This was despite his being an atheist, a staunch believer of the Marxist ideals and Darwin.
For more than twenty years he lived alone without any relatives in the Philippines. He found a home in many people’s heart all over the Philippine archipelago.
This final piece of his essay talks about our belongingness to something more profound than any place we can imagine.
Christmas day is a decisive day, a day to make some tough decisions. Every decision we make is either for God or against God. There is no neutral ground. Life is never neutral. There is no third possibility. Either we live in and with God or we do not. And if we sincerely feel that we do not, then we can always go back to the divine path. Every decisive day is a joyful day if we know how to discern in God. Decision-making is not a reason for fear and trembling.
Every crisis is a spiritual opportunity for us to deepen our character and broaden our horizon; the deeper the crisis, the greater the opportunity. Every day we need to make a decision to follow Jesus Christ and each subsequent day we need to renew, reinstate and reiterate that decision for to follow Christ is an ongoing decision.
If humanity is to progress, Christ is inevitable. No one can kick him out of history. Jesus restores in us our capacity to love for he is the true lover par excellence. Jesus is the sinless one (Sebastian Moore) for he gives us back our capacity to love. Sin blocks our true nature which is to grow in love.
Jesus has called us out of bondage, out of captivity, out of idolatry. The one who loves mostly is the freest innermostly. The one who loves freely lives joyfully. Christ is closer to us than we are to ourselves. In Christ, there is true freedom and there is no any other source of freedom except in Christ. Military victories cannot restore real freedom. Christ is our true freedom. To restore and to maintain freedom, people need to live like Christ.
Love indwells amongst us, takes flesh in the midst of us. Love makes its tent amongst us. Love makes a permanent abode in our slums, shanties, and shabby shelters in order never to leave us. One does not need to be a holy person to recognize it. A sinner’s recognition of this truth is the beginning of a new prospect of a new life.
It is true that people seldom change or some will never change significantly. We need to look at such people very sympathetically and not judgementally. Even if they do not want to change, they deserve our love, patience and sympathy. It is true that people are lazy, selfish, complacent, greedy, evil, cruel, vengeful, hateful, arrogant, stupid, silly, idiotic, loathsome, banal, ruthless, lustful and weak. But still we have to love them precisely because people are such.
The divinity of Jesus is not a separate reality but hidden, contained deep within his humanity. Humility is another name for humanity. Humility is not timidity or backwardness or feebleness. It is born of innermost freedom, strength and magnanimity of one’s character. Humility is the virtue of the brave, the strongest and the courageous. A weakling can never radiate it or practise it. Pride is the existential condition of the weakling. That is precisely why humility is such a rare virtue amongst us humans.
This is the conclusion of Professor Anton Meemana’s article on Christmas. It is an honor for me to have known such a remarkable and wonderful human being. Like Christ from birth up to His final years on earth the persecutions He encountered did not deter him to find the value of His birth, life and death.
Professor Meemana is very much alive after having his name constantly in the roster of established critics of the Sri Lankan government. His flight to the Philippines during the height of the methodical arrest and execution (that includes lynching) of any oppositionist was unmistakably miraculous and providential. This was despite his being an atheist, a staunch believer of the Marxist ideals and Darwin.
For more than twenty years he lived alone without any relatives in the Philippines. He found a home in many people’s heart all over the Philippine archipelago.
This final piece of his essay talks about our belongingness to something more profound than any place we can imagine.
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