By JOSE MARTIN SINGH
A star hovers like crystal in the dark sky and shines on a manger where the smell of refuse pervades the air, where hay mixes with dirt, and where a child sleeps in swaddling clothes. Shepherds, cattle, and scholars from the East surround the newborn nestled in the arms of his tired yet, in this moment, happy parents.
Joseph and Mary went through difficulties before arriving in Bethlehem. For one, the knowledge of Mary's conception of Jesus Christ threatened her being stoned to death since Jewish law banned the bearing of a child outside of wedlock. So, the young couple traveled from Nazareth to Bethlehem, with Mary suffering pangs in her womb and Joseph pleading to the host of a lodging, who pointed them to a stable nearby.
Their struggle only continued with the new order from the tetrarch of Judea, Herod the Great, to slaughter all newborns. And so, a bloodbath ensued throughout the land because Herod feared that this child, prophesied to be the King of the Jews, would usurp his throne. Soldiers scoured the cities for the newborn child, and Joseph and Mary were forced to flee with Jesus to a faraway land as refugees.
The coming of Jesus was feared by despots as it began the revolution of a loving God, who before had smitten sinners and foiled their cities. Many Jews expected a similar almighty savior, one to take "the government upon his shoulders," as foretold by the prophet Isaiah. But Jesus came, humbly and quietly, to make justice and love manifest among men.
In his public ministry, he restored the sight of the blind, healed the sick, dined with sinners, and fed the hungry. He lived a life of selflessness, of service to others, for he thought it is the way for love and justice to prevail.
If Jesus were among us today, indeed, he would speak out against the injustices besetting the people.
Looking back at how this year has fared, one might be hard pressed to find hope amid all abuses and killings in a senseless and brutal war against the poor, all violated rights, all threats and absurdities coming from the president's mouth. Lots continue to suffer from unjust wages and dangerous working and living conditions. Lots eke out their days in abject hunger and indigence and will do so even in the holidays ahead. There are many dispossessed despite God's supposed presence in our communities.
Though Jesus came to conquer evil, there still remains so much suffering, so much of evil's workings in the world. In the words of Saint Thomas Aquinas, evil is the "privation of being," a lack in an individual or society's humanity.
Yet Jesus proved that love could prevail despite the odds. He came to uplift those who were abused and trampled upon by inhumane and dehumanizing systems.
Isaiah, in his prophecy, described the coming savior as the Prince of Peace, and Jesus has rightly been so. Today, peace can perhaps reign when we know our responsibility to one another. The reality of the times plants seeds that sprout into love or die into hate. The chief apostle of Christ, Peter once admonished the community: "Above all, let your love for one another be intense, because love covers a multitude of sins."
Love crushes evil and make ripples from individual to society, for it always seeks for the good of others and perseveres despite the worst. We have always retreated to our caves of indifference and found nothing but darkness. Let us go out and walk in the light of love. ●
Published in print in the Collegian’s December 14, 2018 issue, with the headline “What if God was one of us?”
