Today is Christmas Day Year. 2007 – and it is customary to greet everyone (Family & Friends) the usual greetings: “Merry Christmas”. As a Catholic nation, the majority of Filipinos believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, sent by our Heavenly Father, to redeem the world from the clutches of Satan, and to bring Light and Love to a people (suffering and lost in darkness). ). ) and open the gates of Heaven.
My wife and I reside in a Catholic neighborhood located at the highest point of the city of Marikina, about 25 km east of ManilaSunset. Here we built our Family House 35 years ago and raised our 3 children. Even though our children (now all adults) live separate lives with their respective family and social commitments, we have made it a point to gather in our family home for our own family reunion, observed by hearing “Midnight Mass.” , sharing the “Noche Buena Cena”, and for the Opening of Gifts. Like ours, other families in our neighborhood have their own meetings. As has been the custom for decades, for the past 9 days leading up to Christmas Day, some neighbors have been forcing themselves out of bed at 4:30 am. “Midnight Mass” in anticipation of and instead of the mandatory “Christmas Mass”. To make up for the previous nights sleep loss, waking up on Christmas Day would generally be late in the morning (to recharge lost energy) in anticipation of family gatherings for Christmas Day lunch and dinner away from home with “Extended families”. “. Ours is a happy family and a friendly neighborhood, especially on Christmas Day.
But as Christmas is for everyone: (1st: us, the resident middle-class homeowners; 2nd: the urban poor squatter families relocated by LGU Marikina along the creek in the west; and 3rd ยบ: another group of urban poor families who did not move after the construction of the subdivision finished decades ago living along the Nangka river in the east); our Catholic community held a daily “yard sale” (immediately after Sunrise Mass) discarding used clothing intended for our urban poor neighbors for the opportunity to purchase “good” clothing at “gift” prices.
Unfortunately, Christmas as a Season of Giving has turned into a Season of Expectation. As the mostly employed middle class expects monetary gifts (Christmas bonuses and/or annual salary increases) from their respective employers, poor urban underemployed or unemployed parents leave their homes to accompany their children on Christmas Day. House to house shouting “Merry Christmas” to the owners and hoping to receive gifts, in kind or in cash. In houses where these Urban Poor Parents receive none, some nasty comments may be uttered.
For me, I consider this “Material Face” of Christmas as taken out of context of the true “Spirit-of-Christmas”. More than the happy occasion of celebrating the Birth of Jesus on this Christmas day, I believe that each one of us has the task of asking ourselves: “What can I (and should I) do to help make a better world, not only today, but even more, all the days of my life”?
