As December arrives, the world begins to unpack the old Christmas trees and all of its colourful hangings. Bakers soak their raisins, knead their dough and fire their ovens for yet another time of festivity. Malls get bejeweled with red, green and white festoons. Children come home to cuddle up to the warmth of friends and family. Christmas carols get rewound on the decks of music systems and radio stations. The business world revels too, with the sales of everything skyrocketing. All this to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, a baby born to an ordinary couple, Joseph and Mary, in Bethlehem over 2,000 years ago. Jesus’s birth was prophesied in the holy scriptures, heralded by the happenings of the time and celebrated as a historical event ever after. Christmas transcends the Christian world into a universal celebration of thanksgiving, joy, peace and homecoming.
Somewhere along the highway of time in the centuries that followed, the essential Christmas narrative has been influenced by many cultural traditions that have little to do with the original event. Santa Claus, the Christmas tree, mistletoe, cakes, reindeers, etc., entered the Christmas story to give it a festive flavour. In the bonanza that Christmas has come to be, the true meaning of a birth that split time into two segments has been lost. The pandemic, uninvited and unwelcome, has been a speed-breaker on the commercial Christmas that had become a part of our lives. The festival this year, devoid of its usual fanfare, opens a new window into the setting of the first ever Christmas in all its simplicity and sensitivity. Reliving that first experience through the eyes of Joseph and Mary will make Christmas 2021 closer to the real lives we live.
Let us visit the story again in the setting of a Bethlehem village. A young couple, Joseph and Mary, are expecting their first child. There is a government order to file their census, for which they undertake a long, arduous journey on a donkey despite the advanced stage of Mary’s pregnancy. The hour of reckoning arrives earlier than expected. Mary is now in pain and Joseph, a first-time father-to-be, is desperate to find a place for her to deliver. He knocks on the doors of several inns, only to be told, “there is no room in the inn”. However, there is one inn-keeper who steps in empathetically. He too has no regular room but is kind enough to offer a make-shift cattle-shed and a manger with some hay for the baby. Joseph, albeit inexperienced, stands in as a midwife, errand boy and caregiver. Jesus is born, wrapped in swaddling clothes and placed in the manger. Mary must have been exhausted from the long journey and the blood loss of childbirth. She may have wanted to sleep when the shepherd guests and wise men began to arrive to offer their veneration to the child king. Yet, they receive them like good hosts and accept their gifts. But before the stipulated time, Mary and Joseph are forced to run for cover to Egypt with their newborn child to escape Herod, who is seeking to kill the baby. The rest is history.
‘No room in the inn’ is an apt metaphor that underlines the reality of what we are living with today. The world is beleaguered with constraints arising from a new world order induced by a pandemic, now in its second year. Curbs on travel today are similar to what Joseph and Mary experienced. The paucity of hospital beds and oxygen we experienced earlier this year echoes the same words ‘no room in the inn’. Thousands of migrants walked a thousand miles with no room in any inn along the way. We have been forced to move indoors and secure our homes so as to not allow anyone entry. Our offices are partially closed and livelihood limited. Our relationships have become lukewarm in virtual mode. Even our creative minds are closed to enterprise. There is no room in anybody’s inn, in a manner of speaking.
Jesus Christ came into this world in an awfully constrained milieu of poverty, frugality and fear. But he grew up to bring hope to all, especially those who were disadvantaged. He picked up poor fishermen as his teammates, shielded the stigmatised from assault, dined with the disliked tax collector, allowed a paralysed man to be lowered through the roof to be healed and talked to socially ostracised citizens. He showed who is a good neighbour and healed people of their illnesses. His message of love, peace and joy centred on acts of restoration. He showed that loving God was possible largely by loving fellow humans. He made rooms for all in his inn.
Christmas this year may be denuded of its usual gaiety. But in the subdued celebration of the time lies the discovery of what the true purpose of an ordinary birth of an child in an ordinary situation was. The purpose was to bring peace on earth and goodwill to all. May this be our reality this year. As we spend less on buying gifts for ourselves, let there be more giving to those who are less privileged.
May the joie de vivre of this Christmas accompany you and your families through the coming year.
Dr Sunil Chandy
Former Director, CMC Vellore
(sunilchandycmc@gmail.com)