By Fr Antony Christy, SDB.
Prince of Peace, Divine Shepherd, Wonderful Counselor
The Nativity of the Lord – December 25, 2023
Isaiah 9:1-6; Titus 2: 11-14; Luke 2: 1-14
We celebrate a birthday today, a birthday that initiated a new birth to the entire humanity, a birthday of a very special person! We are not here to celebrate the birth of a helpless infant or a chubby child who would be playing with a globe in its hands… It is not just a child who is born today!
We are here to celebrate the birthday of the One of whom Isaiah spoke: for unto us a child is born, a son has been given to us… he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (Is 9:6).
If it were a mere child, why should the King be so alarmed? Why should the world fear? Why should the world wonder what is in store? The Kings are in fright because the one who is born is a Prince, the Prince of Peace!
It was 1914, this very same day, the Christmas eve, it was a Friday, the morning was noisy with bombshells and bullet rounds but the evening came and there was a total silence. The darkness thickened as the silence deepened, with Germans on one side and the British and French on the other. But something strange was happening… something was breaking through that darkness – a small lit candle appeared on the German horizon… what a foolish thing to do in the war front – betraying your location, making oneself vulnerable to the guns of the enemy!
As the British rose to an alert, yet another strange thing happened breaking the silence of the night – a solemn orchestra began a lovely hymn: Stille Nacht, Heil’ge Nacht… It took just a few seconds for that beautiful sound to reach the opposite camp! The British were wonderstruck and the guns went down while the voices rose, singing the same hymn – the beautiful carol Silent Night, Holy Night. Very soon, the French began the same in their language: Douce Nuite, Sainte Nuit… One carol followed the other and more candles appeared. The Germans walked over the fence and the British and French did the same and soon they were in the no-man’s land shaking their hands, embracing each other, exchanging gifts – strange gifts like their buttons and cigars, pipes and lighters – there was an unofficial, unauthorised and unarranged ceasefire! Not a shot was fired all night… In one of the zones, the ceasefire continued for the next one week! The whole battalion had to be reassigned another region in order that the war be continued in that place. This is called the Great Christmas Truce of 1914, in history. The next year, in many zones on the border they tried to observe this truce, but it was not as successful as in the preceding year. In 1916, there was a strict and deliberate prohibition on the truce! It’s been more a century since then, and the world is still afraid of this prince of peace! Today, as it has been more than a few times, there is so much need for bringing peace to the warring factions. Can the Prince of Peace not bring peace to humanity, to our hearts, to our families, to our relationships? Let’s give peace a chance and allow the Prince of Peace to be truly born!
If it were a mere child who was born, why were the shepherds notified, and why is it that they were given such prominence in the story? Because the One who is born is a shepherd—a true shepherd who is born to die, born to lay down his life for his sheep—the Divine Shepherd! Why should God be born to die? Why?
God could have made one of his prophets die for us; why should he die himself? A friend asked another this question, and the argument went on. The friend was not convinced. They went their way. The other friend one day invited the former to an outing and asked him to bring his beloved little son along. The outing plan was to go boating on a lake, and in the middle of the water, the friend pushed his comrade’s son into the water. Shocked and angry, the friend jumped into the water. His son brought him to safety and was about to charge on his friend… He stopped him and asked him, “Why did you jump? You could have asked me to save your son, or the boatman to save or called for a security personnel…” While the man shouted back – “Because he is my son, and I love him more than anything in this world!” He concluded, – that’s the same with God. God so loved the world that God gave God’s only son. God so loved the world that He decided to come into the world in and through God’s son. That is the Shepherd we have—who is not worried about making laws that are merciless and insensitive, who is not worried about establishing his own ego and prove to the world that he is capable of things that no one can imagine, who is not power-mongering or money-minded—he is a shepherd who is love and compassion, who decides to be born to die. Every person is born to live; there was only one who was born to die, and that was God’s only son! In his death, he brought us life!
If it were a mere child who is born today, why should the world fear this child? Why should everyone look at this Child and the philosophy that this child brings into this world as a threat? Because the One who is born is a Wonderful Counselor. If only we heed to His counsel!
The world has a counsel, an advice – make sure you get your share and a little more if can be, never less than that. Make sure you get and get, and keep getting without anyone cheating you! Doesn’t matter what you do, make sure you succeed, gain, and stand to win! The Child born today has a different counsel. Have you heard of these two brothers? One was married and had two kids; the other remained single. They had a common farm, their inheritance. And they worked together on the farm, producing grains in abundance every year. They shared the produce equally. One night, the married brother thought on his bed, ‘It is not fair that we share halves. He is single and he needs a secure future. After all, I have my family to stand by me if anything happens in case!’ So, from that day on, he would get up in the middle of the night, take a sack of grain from his barn, and quietly slip it into his brother’s barn. The single brother thought to himself one day, ‘It is not fair that my brother and I share the produce equally. After all, I am single while he has three more people to fend for.” And he began to quietly transfer a sack every night into his brother’s barn from his own. Both of them, on their own, were wondering why, after all these nights of transferring sacks of grains, there had been no difference…until one mid-night they bumped into each other, each with a sack on his shoulder, walking towards the other’s barn. They dropped those sacks, embraced each other, and wept in love. That is Christmas giving! Can we bump into each other with sacks of what we want to give each other? What a place this world would be if we were to take this counsel seriously: Give! Christmas is giving. That is the Christmas advice: give, give and give. That is the most fundamental form of love.
The One who is born is the Prince of Peace, the Divine Shepherd, and the Wonderful Counselor. Are we prepared to accept that birth? Then, Merry Christmas to us!
Fr Antony Christy is a Salesian Priest from 2005, who has a Masters in Philosophy (specialisation in Religion) and a Masters in Theology (Specialisation in Catechetics). He has completed his doctoral research in Theology at Salesian Pontifical University, Rome. Walking with the Young towards a World of Peace and Dialogue is the passion that fires him on.