Chiedu Uche Okoye
Is Christmas not the most widely celebrated religious festival in the world? Even non-Christians like Buddhists, Hindu faithful, Moslems, African Traditional Religion Practitioners, and others participate in the celebration of Christmas, which is the birthday of Jesus Christ, our saviour. The celebration of Christmas is marked by a long holiday that starts from the Christmas eve and stretches to the New Year day.
The celebration of Christmas dates back to some centuries ago. We know that Christmas is around the corner when there is chill in the air; and, we do muffle ourselves in heavy clothes at night because of the biting cold. And our lips will become chapped during the period. During the yuletide season, the deciduous trees by the roadsides will shed their leaves while the non-deciduous ones will wear coats of dust. These are signs that Christmas is in the air.
But what is Christmas? It means the remembrance of the birth of Jesus Christ, the only begotten son of God. Jesus Christ, according to the synoptic gospels, came into this world through the Immaculate Conception, having been born by Virgin Mary. Christians are taught to believe that Jesus Christ is the ransom for the sins of mankind. So, these who exercise faith in him and abide by his teachings will enter heaven when they die.
However, some writers posit that Jesus Christ is not a historical figure; rather, he’s a product of myths and legends. But the book called “A Short History of The World” said this about Jesus: ‘He appeared in Judea in the reign of Tiberius Caesar. He was a prophet. He preached after the fashion of the preceding Jewish prophets. He was man of about thirty, and we are in the profoundest ignorance of his manner of life before his preaching began.” There are compelling proofs, which show that Jesus Christ actually lived in the time past. But, was he born on December 25, the day Christians commemorate his birthday? The Jehovah witnesses, a Christian sect, argue that Jesus could not have been born on December 15 based on the Biblical nativity story which vividly described the climatic conditions which existed at the time of his birth. It’s said that the Greek festival of solstice, the worship of the Sun God, was Christianized into Christmas. Perhaps, the Christmas celebration has pagan origins and background.
So, today, Jehovah witnesses, members of Cherubim and Seraphim, and some other Christian groups do not celebrate Christmas on the grounds that it has pagan origins. They say, also, that Jesus Christ did not instruct His disciples to mark His birthday. Today, the celebration of Christmas by Christians in the Christendom bears similarities to the throwing of worldly parties and feasts. In the name of celebrating Christmas, people indulge in illicit sexual concupiscence, get drunk, and binge on food rather than reverence God on that day.
Consequently, our wild celebration of Christmas does bring woes to us. In the recent past, not a few people had died in car accidents on Christmas day because of drink-driving. And many teenage girls had got unintended pregnancies, which caused the truncation of their dreams of acquiring further education. They’ve become semi-literate teenage mothers, who are saddled with the responsibilities of raising kids.
More so, in the period before the Christmas day, many people would engage in mad pursuit of money, which they would use to make purchases for the Christmas celebration. Because the Christmas period is the time of mass return of people to their country homes, people would like to dress in very expensive clothes, drive in posh cars, and start living in magnificent houses they built. But their ostentatious display of wealth is not congruent with the teachings of Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ for whom we celebrate the Christmas symbolizes love. Were he on earth today, he would not approve of rich people’s ostentatious display of wealth in the midst of poor people, which shows their lack of charity and insensitivity to other people’s problem and impecuniousness. Jesus Christ for whom we mark the day admonished us to strive to possess the virtue of charity. The person who loves his brother has fulfilled the commandments.
And in the Bible we are told that “Love covers a multitude of sins’’. But does love still exist among us? Do the feelings of empathy well up in our hearts when we see other people who are encountering existential problems? The fact is that we have stopped being our brother’s keepers. Now, Nigerians are very hard-hearted human beings. It is not love that propels Boko Haram insurgents to detonate bombs in crowded places to kill other people. The kidnappers who kidnap rich people for ransom are not actuated by the feelings of love. And, in today’s Nigeria, our politicians, who perceive their occupation of exalted political offices as opportunities to become rich, do dip hands into the public tills to steal our collective money.
What propelled them to steal our collective wealth for their personal use is not their love for the less- privileged people in Nigeria. Consequently, Nigeria lacks basic infrastructures and millions of Nigerians have been reduced to sub humans by poverty. So, they live below the breadline, and in margins of society.
It is another Christmas celebration in the world. It is the time for the remembrance of the birthday of Jesus Christ, who’s the saviour of mankind. So, as Jesus Christ symbolizes love, it behooves the well-heeled people in our society to look the way of the poor and offer them succour so that they can celebrate the Christmas happily, too. They should visit the orphanage homes, hospitals, and correctional centers to give the inmates of these centers material gifts.
And, in today’s Nigeria, our country has been sundered apart by the centrifugal forces of religion and ethnicity. But a man who has the virtue of love is not prejudiced against other people whose religions and ethnic origins are different from his .Our religious and ethnic prejudices predispose us to hate those who are different from us. In this yuletide period, we should imbibe Jesus Christ’s message of love.
Our imbibing the virtue of love will disabuse our minds of religious biases and ethnic prejudices As it is the yuletide, let us ponder and reflect on the revolutionary teachings of Jesus Christ, the chief of which is his message of love.
Christ’s crucifixion on the cross of Calvary which was preceded by his acceptance to become a ransom for our sins is a perfect exemplification and demonstration of love. Let us continue to emulate Christ’s sterling examples during this Christmas period and beyond.
Okoye writes from Uruowulu – Obosi, Anambra State