A father punished his
3-year-old daughter for wasting a roll of gold wrapping paper. Money was tight
and he became infuriated when the little girl tried to decorate a box.
Nevertheless, the little girl brought the gift to her father the next morning
and said, “This is for you, Father.”
The father was
embarrassed by his earlier over reaction, but his anger flared again when he
found out the box was empty. Father yelled at his 3-year-old daughter, stating,
“Don’t you know, when you give someone a gift, there is supposed to be
something inside?” The little girl looked up at him with tears in her eyes and
cried, “Oh, Father, it’s not empty at all. I blew kisses into the box. They’re
all for you, Father.”
My dear friends in
Christ, whenever we receive a gift or birthday present, we know what is important
is neither the wrapper nor the box but the thing wrapped which is inside the
box, no matter how much is its worth. It is not unusual for us, however, to get
attracted to the elegance of the wrapper and the size of the box before we see
the gift itself.
In relation to our
Gospel, John 5: 33-36, we can say by way of metaphor that John is the wrapper
while Jesus is the gift of God. John testified that he himself was not the
Christ. He knew his mission was only to prepare the way of the Lord. He knew he
was not the gift. But people rejoiced with him that they took him as a gift. When
it was the time for Jesus to reveal Himself as the gift of God for all, some
people questioned Him. Those people seemed to enjoy looking at the wrapper
instead of opening the box to see the gift. To use the metaphor of the Gospel
itself, John is referred to as a burning and shining lamp. When people saw the
light on it, they rejoiced. They rejoiced that they took John as a light itself
although John knew he was just a lamp for the light of the Lord. If people
rejoiced in seeing John, the lamp with his light, it must be expected that the
more they must rejoice in seeing Jesus, the light himself. Yet, this was not
the situation imposed in the said Gospel. People questioned Jesus rather than
rejoiced in Him.
Today, in our first
novena Mass, we reflect why do we celebrate Christmas? We celebrate Christmas
for it is the birthday of our Lord Jesus Christ. So how do we celebrate it? For
some, including some non-Catholics look forward for the Christmas sale in every
mall or store, enjoy the Christmas party at the office or school, prepare gifts
and cards, and anticipate their Christmas vacation. For others, they celebrate
the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ with prayer of thanksgiving. Though how
difficult it is for us to wake up early in the morning to attend the Simbang
Gabi, we do it because it is the proper way to prepare for His birthday i.e., with
prayer of thanksgiving. We must understand that all the activities related to
Christmas are just mere wrappers. The gift is Jesus. We have those activities because
of Jesus, He was born for us. But many of us engaged in Christmas activities
without Jesus being welcomed as a gift. It is like celebrating Christmas
without Christ; celebrating a birthday party without the birthday celebrator. Just
like those people in the Gospel, they missed to look at the gift with
importance, we too do the same mistake by celebrating Christmas without prayer
of thanksgiving. If we do celebrate Christmas with prayer of thanksgiving, we
thank God for giving us Jesus in our lives. As we receive Jesus, the gift of
God, we learn to give as Jesus gives. We learn to forgive as Jesus forgives. We
know that our Christmas would be merry and bright because of the gift and not
because of the wrappers. We accept Jesus in our lives. Amen.
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