LIVING LIFE | KAIROS GLOBAL | DECEMBER 2020

When I think of Christmas the first thing that comes to mind is family – spending time together putting up the Christmas tree, crib and all the decorations, in spite of our different ideas and little fights over what to put where. Christmas Day starts with Mass followed by a grand breakfast, breaking the fast of advent quite literally. The rest of the day would involve visits to family, friends and relatives. As I grew older and moved away from home, Christmas did not change much but the definition of family did. It became my friends, fellow parishioners and JYs. For me the true meaning of Christmas is the togetherness and joy that comes with it – a Christian’s true calling.

-Tony Antony George, New Zealand

Christmas a time of joy, cakes, cards, wines, stars, lights and festivities. Everyone will have a memory of a Christmas that is close to the heart. Yet after all those celebrations and colours, how many of us can find Christ born in our hearts? Have we felt real joy? We see in the Bible that the heavens celebrated when Christ was born. Someone once said that if Christ was truly born in our hearts, we too would be able to hear the heavens. 

The Christmas celebration that stands out in my memory was during my 12th standard, when all my friends got drunk on Christmas night, behind the church where Christmas Mass was being celebrated. It was a Christmas filled with celebration but empty of Christ. From there to the Christmas of last year has been a long journey – one in which a teenager was called to be madly in love with Christ. It took me many years to know the real joy of Christmas, years spent walking slowly with Christ on a journey of many ups and downs, to finally realise that Christmas was actually celebrated in a manger.

Being called and touched by Christ himself, waiting for Christ to be born in my heart makes it a real Christmas.

-Alan Joseph, India

Growing up in Kerala, our family’s celebrations began with decorating the house, the Christmas tree, setting up the crib and stars, followed by Midnight Mass. Relatives would come and we would have a joyous time of togetherness and fellowship. 

One Christmas, my Dad came home for vacation from Dubai. It was the first Christmas in a very long time that we were together as a family. Dad suggested that we invite another family too, to celebrate Christmas with us. They were not related to us but were from our hometown. So we invited them for Christmas and spent time sharing the joy and love of Christ. 

Two years later found me working in Dubai alone. Dad had retired by then and had gone back to India. That Christmas I faced the lonely and dreadful option of celebrating within the limitations of my bachelor bed space. But unexpectedly, a family invited me home to celebrate Christmas with them! 

In his wonderful way, the Lord fulfilled my desire to celebrate his birth with a family and not alone. I then thought of the family we had invited few years ago. I am sure that just as I felt the Lord’s love through this family here in Dubai, they too would have felt the same through us. This Christmas let us invite someone home to join our families to celebrate Christ’s birth.

As Psalm 18:30 says, This God – his way is perfect; the promise of the Lord proves true; he is a shield for all who take refuge in him. 

May our Lord Jesus Christ bless you all abundantly.

• Rudy Jacob, Dubai, UAE