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Christmas! A celebration of the humanity of God and the divinity of man

Mario J. Paredes

Every year, believers in Jesus Christ celebrate his Christmas, that is, his nativity and birth, two thousand years ago. Even though Christmas is a strictly Christian holiday, this season of celebrations has become universal. Every corner of the Earth celebrates Christmas because it is well-known that all humanity consciously recognizes, more or less, the greatness and significance of Jesus of Nazareth, who divided how we count history in half: the years before his birth and the years following. Jesus of Nazareth, above all, left us the legacy of his life project as a model and path to follow so that we can reach the truth, humanize ourselves, and be happy.

This is a truth that consists of knowing that we are children of God and brothers and sisters of all. This is a truth and a path that challenges and pushes us to build coexistence, societies, and a better, more just, supportive, and fraternal world.

We all celebrate this time with lights, decorations, debuts, trips, meetings, parties, messages, gifts, dinners, trees, etc. But the commodification and frenzy of Christmas prevents, detracts, and keeps us from encountering the essential message of what we celebrate. We risk celebrating without knowing what we are celebrating, of emptying Christmas of its content.

Christmas is a celebration and time of year with universal meaning because the content of the message for this commemoration is also universal. It is valid for every man and woman who comes into this world, especially when confronted with our daily experiences of evil and dehumanization that affect and challenge us all.

The life project of Jesus and his message is not the property of a religion, sect, ideology, or body of doctrine to be chained on shelves. The message of Jesus Christ, whose birth we celebrate, touches every human being and all human beings, insofar as the deeds and words of Jesus of Nazareth reveal to us the most intrinsic, essential, noble, and true values and ideals to which every human being aspires: the value of life, peace, humility, silence, joy, generous giving. These are universal values, The property of no one person; they are instead the patrimony of all men and women of goodwill, of all humanity.

The first message of what we as Christians call the “incarnation” is that God wants to be with man and loves all that is human: “They will call his name Emmanuel, which means, God-with-us” (Is 7:14; Mt 1:22). The God revealed in Jesus Christ cares about everything human, all that is profoundly human. Thus, the best human causes, our causes, are God’s causes. Through his life, Jesus reveals to us the humanity of God and the divinity of man, of every man. The struggles for humanization, the realization and dignification of the human being are struggles willed by God and according to his will and new command: “Love one another...” (Jn 13:34)

Christmas also reminds us that Christians and all human beings can follow Jesus, his example, because he is one of us and like us, “like us in all points except sin” (Heb 4:15; Phil 2:6-11). And in the search for truth and happiness that we all experience, in him, we find the model of man that God has and wants for every man. Therefore, blessed are we who – in Jesus of Nazareth – see what many wanted to see and did not see, hear what many wanted to hear and did not. (Lk 10:24ff). And for this very reason, Jesus is confessed by Christians as 
“the way, the truth, and the life” (Jn 14:6).

Jesus and his nativity teach us that God’s ways are not our ways and that his thoughts are not ours. This world’s logic goes against the logic of God as it is revealed in the Good News (gospel), which is the life of Jesus of Nazareth. We can be better human beings and build a better world, to the extent that we learn to think and act like God. (Cf. Mk 8:27ff; Rom 12:2ff)

While we waited for him in palaces and thrones, the one we confess as the Messiah, Lord of history, Son of God, who we celebrate at Christmas, arrives through mangers and crosses. And as we build lives on lies and corruption, He asks us for authority that is truth and coherence. As we arm ourselves against one another, the gospel of Jesus asks us to love and forgive one another. As we elbow our way up and look for wide doors, Jesus asks us to enter through the narrow door, denying ourselves to serve the gift of life to all in universal brotherhood.

Being a believer in Christ does not mean wearing certain clothes or memorizing a compendium of concepts or being spectators or negotiators of certain rites. Rather, it means assuming his logic, the logic of God (1 Cor 1:18-29; Jn 8:23; Jn 15:19) to live and act accordingly.

With the birth of Jesus, we also remember that there can be no sadness when life is born. And, with the life of Jesus, we rejoice because we are born and discover in Him the value of the fragility and innocence of a child lying in the manger, of humility, silence, service, forgiveness for peace, the fulfillment of promises, light, hope and, most especially, the love of God as a good Father for his creatures for the construction of fraternal relationships.

All this comes amidst a world armed for violence and death, a “light” culture where the shell matters more than what’s inside, where ostentation and arrogance, noise and pleasure at all costs, calculation and selfishness, petty interests, and the commercialization of people and things prevail.

The Good News of Jesus asks us to build relationships that are just, and not competing, inequitable, or violent. To build policies and societies where the person prevails over things, where ethics prevail over aesthetics, and being over profit. To build coexistence and societies where service prevails over the power that tramples and crushes and labor relations where the dignity of the worker is more important than the production of wealth.

To celebrate the birth of Jesus is to celebrate the birth of he who challenges us daily to build love instead of hatred and divisions; forgiveness, fraternity, solidarity, and tolerance against selfishness, classism, and discrimination; life instead of death; truth instead of corruption; freedom instead of so many forms of exploitation and slavery today; etc.

In short, Christmas is everyone’s holiday because – in Jesus Christ – we discover the humanity of God and the divinity to which we all aspire, that we all must attain, that we all must build every day, so that it will always be Christmas.

Mario J. Paredes is CEO of SOMOS Community Care, a social care network of more than 2,500 independent providers responsible for reaching out and delivering care to more than 1 million Medicaid patients across New York City.

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