christmas is not just a birthday: christmas B 2011

Tonight we are celebrating Christmas, so Merry Christmas. I just want to emphasize this point because starting this night, it is officially Christmas. I say officially because some of us have already started greeting each other Merry Christmas way back November, and even as early as September we have already begun putting up our Christmas Trees and lanterns. That was the unofficial Christmas, otherwise known as the Filipino Christmas. Today it is officially Christmas and we are celebrating it after almost all our Christmas parties are over. We are after all a people known for postponing our grief, and anticipating our joys.
Tonight if the calculations in the Mayan Calendar proved true, this will be our last Christmas. Do you know that? So you are not watching National Geographic. December 21, 2012, the next winter solstice, will also be the last for it will be the day when the world ends. Yes you heard me right. The world as we know it will end next year, 4 days short of Christmas. So don’t sleep on me while I deliver this homily - this is after all our last.


I am saying this to you not because I have great trust in the Mayan calculations but because I would like to reflect on the fact that the joy of Christmas is never really a joy because of the present, but it is a joy in the present because of the future. We rejoice not because the child is born, but we rejoice because of the promise which this child, born today, holds for our future. Now this a very important distinction because if we rejoice tonight because the child is born, period, then tomorrow morning we will all end up drunk. Which actually will happen to some, believe me. What makes us happy, what gives us joy tonight is the promise which this birth brings to us, a promise that will still find fulfillment in the future. It makes me happy, because it makes me hopeful knowing and believing that the best in my life, in your life, in our country is yet to come because of this birth tonight.
Let us examine the Christmas story in the gospels. Let us not get our data from the songs because they have romanticized christmas too much. Well I believe that it was a holy night but I don’t think it was a silent night, all is calm, all is bright for Mary and Joseph. Just like our songs, our belens are so lovely, so romanticized. If you have time I invite you to the seminary. We have a very nice belen placed on top of a pingpong table complete with a waterfalls, a river, a desert, a pastureland and even a bridge crossing the river. The problem with our belen is every time you look at it, it’s different from the last time you saw it, even if I posted a sign do not touch. Sheep and shepherds seem to move in the middle of the night just like in the movie night at the museum. One day I even noticed something very odd. One shepherd was holding what looks like a microphone seemingly singing on a karaoke before the Lord, and by the river I saw Santa Claus sitting inside the boat - a santa claus in Bethlehem? If you have moving belens just like ours, then I guess you must have a teenager in the house. I have 125.
The belen is cute, really cute, but come to think of it, is this how the real Christmas looked like? Is this what it was like when the savior of the world was born?
The real Christmas is about a virgin disturbed by the announcement of an angel that she would give birth to a son. How can a virgin bear a son, she asked. And the angel replied, 6 months ago a barren wife became pregnant. It must be so confusing for a 14 year old girl, with an angel talking like that.
Christmas is also about a soon to be husband confused, disturbed and terribly upset by a pregnant fiancée. What if your girlfriend tell you one day, ga, nagbusong ako sa gahom sang espiritu santo, swear to God Holy spirit ni.
The first Christmas is about a decree by Emperor Augustus that disturbed the usual daily routine of a humble town called Nazareth obliging them to go for a census. It is about the whole city of Jerusalem disturbed by the coming of the magi. It is about the killing of innocent babies by a ruthless king fearful of a usurper to his throne. It is about a young mother recently burdened by childbirth in a place not really suited for delivering a child, trudging the long and hard road to Egypt to escape murder. It is about an exile. The first Christmas is far from being peaceful or silent or calm. I bet nobody back then sung Joy to the world, the Lord is come!
But why did the angel exhort Mary to rejoice? Why did angels exhort the shepherds to rejoice? No, its not about the birth of Jesus. It is about the future that will still happen and will surely happen because of the birth of Jesus. The angel said to Mary to rejoice for she will bear the Son of the Most High whose kingdom there will be no end. The kingdom that will have no end is not yet, but the son who will establish it is born. It is about the future. Behold, said the angel to the shepherds, I proclaim to you good news of great joy - a savior has been born for you. A savior is just born but he has not saved anyone yet. It’s not about the birth of Jesus itself. It is about the future that will still happen and will surely happen because of the birth of Jesus.
I am sharing this reflection with you this evening because for several evenings I was asking myself, how will the people of cagayan de oro celebrate Christmas? Will there be Christmas in Iligan this year? What will it be like? How can one celebrate Christmas when one has just home and even loved ones? I remember too when my father died on the 21st of December 3 years ago and we have to spend Christmas in front of his coffin. What will it be like to spend Christmas at the ICU of a hospital? Is it Christmas in a poor squatter’s home? Is it still Christmas without noche buena?
It depends. If this is just a birthday celebration ti wala i, pangalisud ka gid e - amo na bala ang ginakanta ta sang una sang gamay pa kita, happy birthday to you, ginamos kag monggo. Na amo na ang guwa sang Christmas kon birthday lang ini. But this is not just birthday. For more than a birthday we are celebrating joyfully what he will do to us and for us now that he was born into our world. For more than a birthday we are celebrating the promises his presence has brought and continues to bring in us. For more than a birthday we are celebrating the soon to be completion of his kingdom which he started when he was born. In other words, we are celebrating the best that is still to come because the Lord has now become emmanuel in our midst.
This is not just a birthday celebration because so many people now cannot sing happy birthday. This is a celebration of the sure future we have in Jesus brought about by his birth. The best is yet to come because of this birth. So many impossible things in our lives have become possible because of the presence of Jesus in us starting from his birth. That is why we rejoice.