CHRISTMAS is not coming so easy this time. The socio-political instability has been dominating, indeed tipping the balance of the horizons of late—dragging, in fact, for some years now, but most especially as an aftermath of the 2004 national elections that has been massively accused of equally massive cheating allegedly by no less than the government’s poll body.
The infamous “Garci tapes” will go down in history—certainly not in the fashion of Santa Clause—distributing votes at will, or at cost and at mandate, to favored administration candidates.
On the other hand, Christmas may be coming very easy after all. When it first happened, Herod was accused of extrajudicial killings not of militant groups and journalists but of hundreds of innocent infants. Corruption, gambling and patronage and transactional politics were the language of the day. While most people were suffering and hungry, he was wallowing in wealth and debauchery.
The baby Jesus was born into this milieu. If this is the context of the original Christmas, it should not be difficult to relate with it today—theologically, at least. Christmas is the entry point of the paschal mystery that bears fruit into the springtime of a new creation at the Lord’s resurrection. How we wish this Christmas, so close to the poverty of the manger and the pain of the cross, will bring us a better tomorrow.
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