Are there fringe benefits of the yuletide season that comprises Christmas and, to many people’s minds, the New Year otherwise known as the holidays? Well, there are quite many, depending on how creative and how initiative the concerned people are.
Among others, nothing beats that chance which allows people to have bonding with loved ones. These may include neighbors, acquaintances, friends, relatives, and most of all, family members. Extending for days, the holiday season does provide them with enough time to get together, enjoy one another’s company, play games, have fun, cry over some problems if need be, and get to know how everybody is doing.
This moment is very vital if we are to consider the close family ties that Filipinos have had for generations, as part of their culture. For centuries, this has been made possible in part by quality time spent together around dinners, finger foods, local wines such as lambanog or coconut juice called tuba, or simply around local songs sung together to the accompaniment of indigenous musical instruments.
The said family ties instinctively prevail among Filipino families like a built-in propensity. One need not teach each member, even the young ones, regarding the necessity of preserving family traditions—they automatically do so. Amid this closeness, however, there is this threat of separation brought by the distance that eventually settles in between members in the course of time. Going places just cannot be helped and this, to some extent, causes family closeness to deteriorate.
But some members would prefer to live elsewhere, away from their relatives so as to preserve good relations. They reckon that when they just live in clustered houses, they run the risk of occasionally irritating one another over trifles such as the quarrels of their children that could worsen into adult fistfights or worse. To avoid such friction, prudent family members would rather that they stay away from one another so that, when they meet after years of being away, they would have love-filled hugs and boisterous laughter.
Thanks to the holiday season that could allow such reunions of distant family members to happen. The time may be rather short, but it is full of joy and excitement, more so that the so-called spirit of Christmas is in the air. The party for all, the exchanging of gifts, the joyful greetings, and the excitement of being together is such a precious moment so unforgettable for being rare and exciting indeed.
It is during this holiday season that we enjoy the presence of loved ones and therefore feel the contentment of loving and being loved. That makes one’s Christmas merry, and one’s New Year, happy. Loved ones still determine our feelings this season, thanks to the thing called family. Thank God for creating it.
St. John the Baptist and us
IT is said that after the messengers of St. John the Baptist left, Christ immediately described who and how St. John was. (cfr. Lk 7,24-30) “What did you go out to the desert to see – a reed swayed by the wind?” he asked. “Then what did you go out to see? Someone dressed in fine garments? Those who dress luxuriously and live sumptuously are found in royal palaces.
“Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom Scripture says: Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, he will prepare your way before you.”
In describing St. John the Baptist, Christ somehow is also describing us. Like St. John the Baptist, we should also get involved in preparing for the second coming of Christ at the end of time. We should help others to make the proper preparation by attuning people’s hearts and minds to the will and spirit of God.
We may suffer the same fate as that of St. John the Baptist, but it will be all worth it. We need to do something about how things are today, since like him whose call for repentance as preparation for the coming of the Redeemer was a lonely cry in the desert, the voice of God today as well as that of the Church or of any spiritual and moral Christian teaching is becoming a voice of one crying in the wilderness.
Present circumstances in the world point to a growing deafness and insensibility to the truths of faith and morals. The prologue of St. John’s gospel already captures this phenomenon: “He came unto his own, and his own received him not.” (1,11)
We need to do something about this predicament by preparing for our death and the end times. This is just to be realistic. It’s not meant to scare us nor to be a killjoy or a wet blanket in our life. Not only do we all die. There is also the end of time itself. Our earthly existence is just a sojourn, a training and testing ground before we enter into our definitive life for all eternity, hopefully in heaven with our Father and Creator God.
We need to develop a good and healthy sense of our life’s end, which is our death that can come to us anytime, as well as the end of time itself. If we follow our Christian faith, we know that there is nothing to be afraid of or anxious about in these truths of our faith.
We would know what truly is the purpose of our life here and of our earthly existence in general. We also would know that we have all the means to pursue that purpose properly. We are somehow reminded of this truth of our faith in that gospel episode where Christ talked about the end of the world. (cfr. Mk 13,24-32)
But, yes, we have to develop a good and healthy sense of how to end our life well, properly prepared to meet Christ in our particular judgment as well as in our general judgment during Christ’s second coming.
Having a good sense of the end gives us a global picture of our life that spans from time to eternity, and sheds light on the present. It guides us. It gives us a sense of confidence and security. It reassures us that we are on the right track, that we are doing well. It tells us what to correct or change, etc.