Finding Christ in Christmas

Christmas is here as celebrations here and there show. Gifts are received and given but many are not mindful of why gift-giving has been the norm.

In the Philippines, Christmas begins as early as the first day of September as evident in the playing of Christmas songs over the radio and decorating houses with lanterns and Christmas trees.

Even malls have made it into a shopping magnet as decorations were set to entice shoppers that the happiest season of the year is here.

When one is keen to notice, many of the decorations do not depict Christ in the celebration but more of Santa Claus and other icons which are foreign for Filipinos.

While they may look and appear as symbols of Christmas, still they do not equate the true meaning of the celebration—the birth of the savior in a humble manger. And a manger is where farm animals feed.

When one learns to give from the heart and not from surplus, when one learns to forgive and let go of the hurts, when one does not succumb to greed and corruption, when one becomes just and not abusive, and love one’s neighbor above self, then one can see the true meaning of Christmas.

It is Christmas and it is Christ who is celebrating His birthday, but how come it is the people and not Christ who receive gifts? Maybe finding the true meaning of Christmas with a changed heart can be the best gift that we can offer Him this season.

Fr. Cimagala, one of our columnists in his December 2011 said that the true meaning of Christmas is that Christ is born in each one’s hearts and that each Christian should be firmly rooted in Christ without minding all the material things that life has to offer.