Christmas Journey: Mother Church Journey

Mother Church's Christmas journey in the year of faith is a testament of faith and a proclamation of divine love and salvation of humanity on earth and in universe as it was before and as it will be for ever. Church waits on the faithfuls with the charity of prayers and holy sacrifice ( Holy Mass), through which the realization of proclamation of spoken and written word of God, incarnated word of God, and resurrected word of God in the world, is achieved by the power of the Holy Spirit in Union with faithful. Christmas season brings lots of graces to the world through charitable activities among faithful. There is no scarcity of  human charity during this season. In this season, many who thinks of themselves as deserved try to serve the undeserved for a cause  most of the time these charities are done in the Holy Name of Jesus Christ. The charitable acts vary in quantity and quality, when it is focused on earthly help, but it is limited in its reach and scope, however, it is a necessary step to exhibit the love of God among people.

My reason has found a strange thing in this world that sometime we  place our priority altered. We are called to follow the two great laws given By Jesus Christ, who summarized the Ten Commandments into two major sections. The first law is to love God and the second law is to love the neighbor as we love ourselves. In short, called to serve God first then to serve human. But very many times, we find ourselves serving human first then think of God next or even we forget God, who is the source of all love. When we jump into serve the world with out divine love, the service may also has a potential to turn turn into vanity or for vain glory or idol worship. Charity comes from all faith and from all walks of life. But christian charity goes beyond just a human help,  it is motivated by the divine love. The charity which is directed by the divine love, serves God while serving the neighbors. The source of divine love is God Himself, it is only through Him and in Him, and through Him, with Him, and for Him,one can operate in perfect charity. So it is necessity to serve God first and stay connected with His presence constantly, while serving people.

In contrary, we tend to keep God next and keep all other busy motives above Him, including service. I think of this status as an altered status of priority. From this alteration begins the human pride, jealousy, arrogance, supremacy, and altered self rights and human rights claims. By saying this, I do not deny the supreme dignity of human rights, but when it is placed in the place of God, it becomes as an idol, which derails the human dignity. From this alteration or adulteration begins deprivation of the rights of unborn and all other unrealistic, unnatural, and immoral claims of human rights. This is just one example, we can see millions of examples in the modern world, where the sanctity of motherhood, fatherhood, and family are altered due to the misplacement of the priority. On the other hand, if  God is given first place in the life,then the decisions in the life and the priorities in the life changes with the conscientious presence of God in the life. Then the charities flows from a God fearing life not only for those who show love but also charity reaches for those who hurt us and offend us, with the courage of God's presence and in faith in His mercy. This is the great charity a human can offer to one another. Among the fruits of such life, which is led in the presence of God, prayer is a valiant fruit which is a charity to oneself and to others. There is no match for one who prays and who has praying parents, praying family, praying friends, praying community, and praying church. one can buy anything in this world but not a sincere soul who would lift a sincere prayer on behalf of oneself. It is very important to have someone praying for us, because Jesus said when two or three gathered in my name I am present among them. He also send His disciples to go into places two by two to minister. So prayer of intercession is a charitable mission. Mother Church's prayer prayers for faithfuls are the greatest charity as serving human and divine advocate in God's presence for the people and for the world.

In this Christmas season, let us keep our priority right, by keeping God first and neighbors next. Let us also praise God first and pray for neighbors next as our charity priority. Let us celebrate Christmas for the original reason for the Christmas, which is the Birth of the Incarnated word of the Father, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us make this Christmas a meaningful one by increasing our faith in God, trust in God, choosing God, and believing God. We are accountable for our times and our decisions of priorities of our visions, values, philosophies to the future generations. If we choose the priority of God's love we will leave a concrete path and a light filled future for the future, if we choose human pride and vanities today, then we will leave a trail for the fall of the humanity in future. Let God guide us and bless us as He dwells among us through Mother Church, in the year of Faith.