“Merry Christmas!” is the greeting you will hear many times during this season. Glorious though this greeting sounds, it sometimes masks the deeper meaning of Christmas, which is sadly reduced to being a festival when you ‘shop till you drop’. Santa Claus, Christmas trees, stars, lights, carols, cards, tinsels, streamers, sweets, and pudding merely manifest the ‘merry’ part of this season’s greeting. But, what about the other half, Christ-mas?
Not many know that ‘Christmas’ etymologically derives from two root-words, ‘Christ’ from the Greek ‘Christos’ meaning ‘anointed one’ and ‘missa’, Latin, referring to ‘go forth’ or ‘sent’. Simply stated, Christmas can be rephrased as, “anointed one, go forth!” or “anointed one, you are sent!” Therefore, we celebrate the greatest event in human history, namely, that God sent forth his only Son and Anointed One, Jesus Christ, into the world as God’s gift to humankind.
Gospel-writer John succinctly says, “God so ‘loved the world that God gave’ His only Son” (3:16). Loving and giving are two sides of the same coin. Loving always fructifies in giving, and giving inevitably implies going forth in love. God’s love is experienced at Christmas not merely in the sending of some prophet or in the imparting of blessings, but in God’s self-gift, a personal, flesh-and-blood incarnation, often called in Asia God’s prem-avatar: Jesus.
Christmas beautifully blends the timeless values of going and giving, moving and loving. All the characters in the Christmas story go forth and give fully. Animated by the going forth and giving of Godself, Jesus’ mother, Mary, and foster-father, Joseph, go forth from Nazareth to Bethlehem, where Jesus is born. Then, poor shepherds go forth to get a darshana of the Christ-Child. Later, directed by a star, the Magi, namely, the three wise men from the East, go forth from their familiar, familial shores to give gifts to Jesus.
Going forth tightfisted and coldhearted is futile. Rather, one ought to go forth with open minds, generous hands, and warm hearts. But the aged and the infirm need not go out, for even within oneself, there are treasures to give. In his bestseller ‘The Prophet’, Lebanese poet Kahlil Gibran writes, “You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.” Surely, each of us can give of ourselves: our time, talents, and energies.
Christmas stories of going forth and giving are heartwarming. For instance, O. Henry’s short story titled ‘The Gift of the Magi’ tells of a poor couple, Della and Jim, who sell their prized possessions, Della’s flowing tresses and Jim’s gold watch, to buy a cherished Christmas gift for the other. The twist in the tale is that the gifts they bought for each other are useless since the combs for Della’s now short hair and the chain for Jim’s now sold watch are unusable. But the punchline is: genuine giving entails sacrifice and selfless love.
The Christmas season sees breathtaking going and coming, buying and selling. Airline tickets skyrocket, and Santa claws at our purses and pockets as we hurry-scurry and worry about what to give whom. Instead, can’t we stop, be silent, or even listen to that classic carol, ‘Silent Night’?
Beyond merriment, everyone can celebrate Christmas meaningfully. To celebrate Christmas more, we could fruitfully focus on the ‘less’. Indeed, next door to us, there are myriad moneyless, foodless, helpless, homeless, hopeless, loveless, jobless, joyless, and friendless folks whom I can go to and give, not just presents, but presence. Moreover, each one of us is an ‘anointed one’; for God’s Spirit, eternally one, yet diversely called in our Asian creeds as Atman, Ruah, Prana, Shakti, or Pneuma, abides within us, and blows around us.
Ultimately, Christmas challenges me/us with two questions: Where am I/We going? What can I/We give? In her ‘The Bleak Midwinter’ poetess Christina Rossetti purportedly provides us with an answer: “What can I give the Christ-Child, poor as I am? If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb; If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part; Yet what I can, I give Him: give my heart.” Have a holy, hearty Christmas with greater going and giving!
