Someone sent me a WhatsApp message about the Standard Operating Procedure (SoP) for Christmas. The shepherds should come with masks; the wise men would be checked for body temperature; the angels were not allowed due to quarantine regulations; but no restriction for the Holy Family because they belong to the same family.
Christmas is a time of expectation and a time of search. The Jews were waiting for the coming of the Messiah, who according to them would liberate them from the oppression of the Romans. But when the Messiah actually came, they did not recognize him. As John writes in his Gospel, “He came to his own but his own did not receive him” (Jn 1:11), much less did not even recognize him.
But those who took efforts to search for Him, they could find him. The Shepherds took the clue from the angel’s message and looked for him amidst the caves and found him in the manger surrounded by cows and goats. The Wise Men followed the star in their search. It was not a blind search but a search with clear expectation, for they brought with them gifts. We read: “Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh” (Mt 2:11).
Before they opened their treasures to offer the baby Jesus gifts, their heart and mind were open to recognize him and to acknowledge him and to accept him. There is an interesting legend. There was a fourth Wise Man.
‘The Other Wise Man’ is a short novel or a long short story by Henry van Dyke, first published in 1895 and has since then gone through many reprints. The name of the fourth Wise Man was Artaban from Persia. He also saw the star and he was supposed to join the other three Wise Men, Melchior from Persia, Gaspar from India, and Balthazar from Arabia. Artaban brought with him costly gifts of sapphire and ruby. But on the way, he took time to help a dying man and so missed the caravan of the other three wise men. With great difficulty, he reached Bethlehem late but by then the Holy Family fled to Egypt. He kept up his search and finally he could find Jesus as Jesus was carrying his cross to Mount Calvary.
It is believed that he is the one who carried, for a while, the cross of Jesus. His search, though long, was successful. What we learn from these wise men is that their readiness to share the best they have. They brought in costly gifts but did not hesitate to share it with a little baby. Jesus shared his divinity with us humans and expects us to share what we have and what we are with the needy.
Once an anthropologist, who studied the behaviour of people, went to a village in South Africa. There in a village he collected the children. He kept a basketful of sweets under a tree a little distance away. He told the children: “Whoever runs first to the tree would get the basket of sweets”. The children looked at each other and then, they ran together, got the basket together, and happily shared the sweets. When the astonished anthropologist asked the reason, they simply responded: That is how we do things here. It is called ‘Ubuntu’. The word ‘Ubuntu’ is a phrase in Zulu language, which means, “I am, because you are”. In other words, a person is a person through other people.
During the 1979 Special Olympics in Seattle, USA, a few differently abled children were lined up for the 100 meter dash. When the gun fired, all started running towards the finish line. Halfway through one little boy tripped and fell down. He began crying loudly. The other runners turned back, ran to the little boy and helped him get up. Then all of them joined their hands together and ran towards the finish line. The entire crowd gave them a standing ovation. More than winning the race individually, winning it together in life is what matters.
Christmas reveals that we need to be together: together with God, together with our fellow human beings, and together with our nature. Jesus said, ‘I am the light of the world’ (Jn 8:12) but he also said, ‘You are the light of the world’ (Mt 5:14). So, we have something in common, namely to shed light of our joy and happiness to all we move around.
May Christmas bring this inner light and the joy of sharing with others what we have and what we are like the Wise Men. Wish you Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.