| by Prof. Dr. S. J.
Emmanuel
( December 23, 2012, Berlin,
Sri Lanka Guardian) Christians celebrate Christmas as the feast of God becoming
man. Their belief is that God created man according to his image, but man lost
it by sin, became a victim of slaveries and thereby lost his peace on earth.
Hence God became man as Jesus and paved the way for man to recover his dignity,
equality and peace. And at the birth of Jesus, the angels sang
“Peace on earth to all men of good will”
Christians celebrate
this feast with liturgical services, enriched by art, musical traditions and
with mutual greetings.
But Christmas has
become almost a universal feast, many celebrating it to strengthen their
friendship, solidarity and togetherness in various contexts of life and
work. This is a welcome development, but
more could be done to achieve the Peace wished at Christmas.
The more we see the
world growing, even in the higher rungs of our society, in the sins of lies, injustices, corruption, dictatorships, wars, mass graves and massacres,
the more we feel that the original meaning and message of Christmas,
needs to be rediscovered and activated. But how ?
God became man because
man lost his humanity through sin! Jesus preached a new Kingdom of values, very
different and opposed, to Kingdom (a world order) and values preached by the
super powers. He preached that all are children of God, the one father of
humanity. We are all equals. Only by recognizing this common dignity and
equality among us, there can be Peace on earth.
As a people we are thirsting
more than ever before for justice, peace and reconciliation. The road to
freedom, reconciliation and peace must start from within ourselves.
A world without peace
can be won over only from within (Gertrud von Le Fort)”
If you want freedom,
become free, if you want peace become peace” the Buddhist monk Thic Nathan of
Paris.
I wish you all a happy
and meaningful Christmas 2012
 Christians celebrate Christmas as the feast...){kind=link}