Christmas is celebrated every year on December 25 to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ, who is, by Christian faith, the son of God. While Christmas is a Christian festive celebration in many parts of the world, including Malaysia, the religious holiday is enjoyed and experienced communally by people of all walks of life. Over the years, the celebration of Christmas has degenerated from being a day that commemorates the birth of Christ, who was sent by God to atone for the sins of humanity, to a purely commercial holiday that bears no semblance of its moral and liberating essence.
The core teachings of Christ are compassion, grace, and atonement. His birth is one that is filled strife and struggle for the liberation of mankind from sin and debauchery. The world we live in today is decomposing with the violence of the capitalist class and the bestial hunger of fascists who continue to feast upon the flesh of the oppressed and the enslaved. Christ teaches humanity that one should not only express grace to the exploited classes of the world but also to stand by them, as Jesus had stood by the sinners, lepers’, and all those who were afflicted and struggled for their liberation. Jesus was not passive in his grace but expressed absolute repulsion and revolt against the ruling class.
We exist in a world saturated with the obsessions of wealth, luxury, and reactionary power. These horrible distractions removes us from the path that Christ had sought, which was salvation from the chains of oppression. Since the advent of man’s greed and debauchery, humanity has been deteriorating with hierarchies that reap many of their basic dignity. In order to strive to live liberated lives, mankind must destroy the notion of selfishness, uproot the poison of self-serving ethics, and completely rupture the wickedness of individualism. Humanity must awaken within itself true compassion, fraternity, and collective consciousness among one another to destroy hierarchies, discrimination, wars, and enslavement. Only through collective, organised action based on the foundational belief of unity can we create a liberated and peaceful world.
To honour the teachings of Christ, it is not that one should remain shrouded in the pages of the Bible and the walls of the church, but one should go among the masses, just as Jesus did, and fight for their humanity with grace and dignity. The morality and humanity that lie within the ancient theology of Christianity need not be marginalised as relics of religion but can be applied as a rational and liberating path for the oppressed of the world, for it was with them that Christ shared his solidarity. In many parts of the world, where Christians are brutalised for their faith, nationality, ethnicity, and caste, like the Christians of Assyria, Armenia, Palestine, and the Dalit Christians of India, their faith in Jesus is wielded as a weapon against the tyranny and barbarity of fascism and colonial occupation. If one is to call themselves a true follower of Christ, one needs to stand firm in expressing his brotherly compassion and grace to the oppressed Christians of the world. Let us take some time to pray, think, and express earnestly our solidarity with all those, Christian and non-Christian, who continue to suffer and struggle in valiance and dignity for their liberation.
Images Sourced From Global Worship’s Tumblr
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