Faith

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Today is Christmas Day Yr2007 - and it is customary to greet everyone (Family & Friends) the usual greetings: "Merry Christmas". As a Catholic Nation, Filipinos mostly believe that Jesus Christ is the Son-of-God, sent by our Heavenly Father, to redeem the World from the clutches of Satan - and to bring Light and Love to a people (suffering and lost in darkness) and to open the gates of Heaven.

My Wife and I reside in a Catholic Neighborhood situated in the highest point of Marikina City - about 25 kms East-of-ManilaSunset. Here, we built our Family Home 35 years ago - and raised our 3 sons. Despite our children (now all adults) living their separate lives with their respective Family & Social Commitments, we have made it a point to come together in our Family Home to celebrate our very own Family Re-Union - observed by hearing "Midnight Mass", by sharing the "Noche Buena Dinner", and by the Opening-of-Gifts. Like ours, other families in our neighborhood have their own re-unions. As has been customary for decades during the last 9 days preceding Christmas Day, some neighbors have been forcing themselves out of bed at 4:30 am to attend "Dawn Mass" in our Catholic Chapel - and practically all neighbors coming to attend the Dec 24th "Midnight Mass" in anticipation & in lieu of the obligatory "Christmas Day Mass". Making up for lost sleep the previous nights, Waking-up on Christmas Day would usually be sometime late morning (to recharge lost energy) in anticipation for the out-of-house Christmas-Day Lunch and Dinner Family Re-Unions with "Extended Families". Ours is a happy family and a friendly neighborhood - specially so on Christmas Day.

But as Christmas is for all: (1st - We, the resident Middle-Class Homeowners; 2nd - The Urban Poor Squatter Families re-settled by LGU Marikina along the creek on the West; and 3rd - Another set of Urban Poor Families who did not move out after Subdivision Construction ended decades ago living along the Nangka River on the East); our Catholic Community held a daily "Garage Sale" (immediately after the Dawn Mass) disposing off used clothings intended for our Urban Poor neighbors to have the opportunity to buy "good" clothes at "give-away" prices.

Unfortunately Christmas as a Season-of-Gifts has transformed itself into a Season-of-Expectancy. As the mostly employed Middle Class expects Monetary Gifts (Christmas Bonus &/or Annual Salary Increases) from their respective Employers, the under-employed or Un-employed Urban Poor Parents go out of their Home-shanties to accompany their children on Christmas Day going House-to-House calling out "Merry Christmas" to homeowners and expecting to receive gifts - in Kind or in Cash. In houses where these Urban Poor Parents fail to receive any, some unkind remarks could be uttered.

To me, I consider this "Material Face" of Christmas as taken out-of-context from the true "Spirit-of-Christmas". More than the happy occasion of celebrating the Birth-of-Jesus on this Christmas Day, I believe that we are each tasked to ask ourselves: "What can & must I do to help make a better world - not only today, but more so, every day of my life"?

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