Warm greetings of Christmas to you all
Christmas is a feast of great joy, still, each year Christmas blooms amidst many challenges.
Just look around the world. It is plagued with multiple challenges. There is distrust, discord and destruction; hate, violence and ruin. Our own Manipur is a symptom and symbol of the human misery.
How to understand and celebrate Christmas in this context? As I was reflecting on the significance of Christmas, I bumped upon a short story.
It is said that Hercules, the Greek mythical hero constructed two pillars near the Straits of Gibraltar, a water body which connects two seas, Atlantic and Mediterranean, and two continents, Africa and Europe … with a warning on them: “Ne plus ultra” – No More Beyond. This mythical idea was so ingrained in people that it restricted adventurous expeditions. Nobody dared to go beyond.
However, the world changed with the arrival of Christopher Columbus. He explored unknown waters, discovered unseen lands and interacted with the unfamiliar people. It seems after the death of Columbus, people erected a memorial for him, a lion destroying ‘Ne’ found in ‘Ne plus ultra’, signifying that after Coumbus there is not ‘No More beyond’, but, ‘plus ultra’ meaning ‘More Beyond’, limitless horizons to be explored.
In fact, this is the significance of Christmas. In the birth of Jesus, God revealed to us infinite possibilities. Faced with sin and its consequences, God did what only God could do. God became a human being and showed the limitless depth and the breadth of God’s love. And Jesus, God who became a human being, did what only God would do. He waded through all sorts of challenges and explored infinite possibilities of love, his central message.
They say, ‘in the company of wind even the dust rises to great heights.’ Christmas is the time to choose the company of God as Mary and Joseph did and, like them bring Jesus amidst us, an example of unlimited love, “plus ultra” – More beyond.
Happy Christmas to you again. May the choicest blessings of God be bestowed on you and your mission.
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