By Leon Bent —
Christmas is round the corner. I asked the Lord, give me a dream, a theme! And, lo and behold, peace versus pieces came to mind. I prayed: Lord, allow some meditative power to flow through my thinking.
This came to me in a flash: one does not ride piggy back on the other. It’s either peace or pieces. In fact, peace is the cherry on the Christmas cake! After a whole year lived well, ‘walking the way of the Lord’, one celebrates what one has lived. This is Christmas in the true sense of the word.
Unfortunately, the Multi Media are like an adroit puppet master. They manipulate us all on a fine string. How? Look at the crowds at our Malls and Shopping Centres. Take Malad alone. People are as busy and businesslike, walking in and out of them, countless in number, as industrious as ants – crawling! All day is rush hour! Every day is peak time!
Sales! Discounts! Attractive Gifts! Buy one, get one free! The daily newspapers are splashed with enticing slogans. People are subtly coaxed into buying not want they need, not even what they want. They open their purse-strings to become one with the crowd, or fall victim to the advertisers wily persuasive power. Almost unwittingly, we have come to live life in one big ‘bargain basement’.
Our world is all about throwing lavish parties, frequenting discos, doing drugs, sipping champagne, rash driving. These crippling indulgences have become rites of passage for our teenagers and adolescents – stamps on their passport to maturity. Why? Are adults any better?
And where does all the money for these unhealthy and unethical exploits come from? Robbery, scams, extortion, cheating, murder, making money at any cost, is the order of the day.
How can one’s life not be in pieces? No matter how much holy water is sprinkled on status generating, leisure-churning, materialistic pursuits, devilish dreams and ‘idol worship’, their sanctity cannot be salvaged. The mind turns insecure, is confused, fudged, distorted, blurred, blunted, self-seeking and restless. Can peace emerge from decadence, personal destruction and jumbled lives?
In the meanwhile, the temperature of our relationships is between cold and freezing point. This reminds me of Christmas cards of old: snow, snow, everywhere! Winter in the air!
When one is ‘in Christ’ all year through, one lives in never-ending summers, like we do in India. The Son shines forever!
The irresistible urge for more and more, the strong desire and urge for insatiable status, and a bursting ego, inflate pride, and leave everyone out of our encircling gloom of self-centredness.
The mantra of a materialistic, pleasure-loving, hedonistic society is: I, me and myself! The constant chant of a peace-filled person is, Come Lord Jesus!
What about blind dates, speed dating, dating in the dark and London’s new fad, bed-dating – just to find Mr. and Mrs. Right!! Such fleeting, empty, self-seeking, lustful encounters and superficial escapades lead to anxiety, depression, emotional paralysis and suicide. Can frivolous partners ever bask in the light of God’s faithful love, shinning softly in their spirit?
Graced and relaxed love-making, and intimate living, can only come about when couples are nestled, in the shared shelter of an intensely vibrant togetherness.
An increasing number of “career mums” are juggling between the demands of home and work. This dynamic is leaving a host of guilty, harried mothers in its wake. And, with the “dad’ spending extra long hours in office, fragile weekend relationships are the norm. In such a delicate and sensitive “family eco-system”, peace has a very slender chance to bloom and grow.
During the “Flight from Egypt” and the Birth of Jesus, there certainly was the osmosis of piping hot love, and gentle devotion, between Mary and Joseph, and the newborn Child. Warm presence is mystical. It is powerful. It is creative. Surely, in a mysterious way, “the peace which the world cannot give”, which Jesus promised after his Death and Resurrection, was birthed in Trinitarian love…the very depth, range and intensity of bonding and unity, Christmas is meant to bring about.
This happens when tongues of fire come down on each person participating in the Eucharistic Sacrifice, at every moment spend in silent communion in Adoration Chapels, when the air is filled with praise and thanksgiving and worship, when one pours over Sacred Scripture; at Cluster Meetings and Neighbourhood Groups, in service of our fellow men and women, through compassionate campaigns, in sacrificial and covenantal relationships, in harmonious familial ties, in community involvement and national integration outreaches.
All these godly acts are whisps of pray, little acts of love, blowing freely in the wind. They are like fragrant smoke wafting, floating, spiraling, and curling heavenward.
When our lives, lived holistically and wholesomely, are altars to God, we are engulfed with an ethereal peace. A saintly, gentle half-smile will light up our faces, with the ‘Sun’ of God. A serenity and calm, stillness will emerge and flow from the very depths of our being that, no earthly storm can destroy.
And now, this gem. Each one sees in the other, what we carry in our own hearts. If we have peace, we will become peacemakers. We will discover peace as the gold spot, in the heart of our neighbour.
Children are ‘the generation of hope”. India has the largest number of children, estimated at 40 crores.
A recent UNESCO “Education for All” Report, 2005, says 1.35 crore children move out of school in the country. A vast majority end up being child labourers and street children. Says Shanti Sinha, an NGO, “About 40% of Indian children are commercial sex workers.”
“Excluded and Invisible”, the title of this year’s UNICEF Report, on the state of the world’s children, seems more than apt, to describe the condition of much of India’s Gen Next.
During Christmas, Children, countless as the stars that shine, will have to endure unbearable stress, as is their fate. They will face torture and their wounds will be left to fester, even as the favoured ones will be decorated like illuminated Christmas Trees, and enjoy extravagant parties.
Surely Jesus came as a little, helpless babe, to bring hope to youngsters who live fragmented lives. How can poise and peace emerge from human wreckage, as they otherwise would, from a scintillating, eye-catching fountain?
And, did Jesus come as a “rootless child”, in a heart-warming, heart-healing way, so that, marginalized and harassed children, may be ushered into a peace of heart, that is beyond words.
When the feminine is regarded as sacred, India will be “at peace”. “I was created from pure human bone. Your white, strong rib-bone became me, Eve – mother of life. Always remember, dearest Adam, Eve is – You!” (“Eve’s Defence” by Ada Aharoni)
India will experience liberty, equality and fraternity, when domestic violence and physical, mental, emotional, sexual, economic, psychological and spiritual (religious) abuse, within a household and elsewhere, is stopped.
Peace is wholeness. In biblical terms it is Shalom: nothing-missing, nothing-broken, prosperity! The Gospel of John says, this is why Jesus came into the world: “to give us life in abundance” (Jn. 10:10).
The message of the Media is so loud that it deafens us to the subtle music of the divine. And yet, the heavenly message appears everywhere, at every moment, especially at Christmas tide. When all events, and life itself, are in the loving heart of God, as a wondrous symphony, there is joy and serenity.
This manifestation can be applied to the Word, the Son of God and man, who became one of us at Bethlehem. All the beautiful, tranquil music was expressed in the Infant, the Messiah! Christmas is at its best, when we celebrate this mystery in every tiny detail, and, when this beauty touches our everydayness.
And this final punch: When we hear the choir of angels’ mellifluous song: “Glory to God in the highest, and peace to His people on earth”, and say….Ah! This is my story, this is my song. Then we will whisper peace to those we meet and greet.
Surely, then, at Christmas, one precise idea is going to float into, and remain, in our consciousness: The peace of Christ, not pieces!
Lean Bent is an ex-Seminarian and studied the Liberal Arts and Humanities, and Philosophy, from St. Pius X College, Mumbai. He holds Masters Degree in English Literature and Aesthetics. He has published three Books and have 20 on the anvil. He has two extensively “Researched” Volumes to his name: Hail Full of Grace and Matrimony: The Thousand Faces of Love. He won The Examiner, Silver Pen Award, 2000 for writing on Social Issues, the clincher being a Researched Article on Gypsies in India, published in an issue of the (worldwide circulation) Vidyajyoti Journal of Theological Reflection, New Delhi.