His Christmas Story

By Rolo B. Cena

Random

Dumaguete Star Informer

25 December 2016

As it was foretold, He was born out of the union of Maryam and Yossef in one winter evening in Bethlehem (Beit Lahm), a Palestinian town located south of Jerusalem (now occupied by Israel) sans the luxury of scholarly skilled birthing assistant and sophisticated hospital bed, in a trough where domesticated animals were fed.

My trip to Jordan, an Islamic country that hosted more than one tribes of the Biblical “Holy Land” reminds me of His overwhelming greatness.  A visit to His Baptism Site, a spot along Jordan River sanctified by no less than Pope John Paul II, added irresistible support to His existence in the history of man no matter what scientific big-bang theory tells us.

He is real:  As real as one Holy Night, as the John the Baptist Spring, where John took water he used to baptize Jesus, and the memorial of Moses at Mt. Nebo, southwest of Amman, the Capital City of Jordan, where Moses was granted view of the Holy Land.

Truly, He is:  As real as your own baptized Christian name, as the holy water poured onto your head, as your marriage, as your friendship and acquaintances and as the love you enjoy today.

He was given life and His passion was to give life:  Lazarus was raised to life from death.  It is the same life He gives to the adulteresses and concubines, to slaves and prostitutes, to social dependents and abused, to the corrupt and marauders, to mentally-dehydrated politicians and narco-politicos, to sinners and lost, and to the quick and the dead.  His life is hope!

Undoubtedly, He gives life to the self-confessed adulteress-senator and driver-lover-concubine, to senator known for his popular military siege now considered a traitor, to the apprehended and confessed drug lord and provider of largesse to top government officials, to the used and abused inmates of the National Penitentiary, to the men in robes who protect offenders, and to other modern day demons of the millennia.

His Words become Flesh; His Flesh becomes the life of courage and strength.  Yet, malevolent men lately take His Words out of context.  They corrupt their souls by corrupting the flesh with lusts, greed, and infamies.

It is as real as the baby you are holding everyday before leaving for work, as real as the man you argue and make love with at nightfall.

Absolutely, His is another classic story no need to tell – a story so distinct that has been told and retold from generation to generation.  His Christmas story is forgiveness that springs from hope in the manger, the manger that holds that One Infant from whom noble life springs.

Yes, the baby delivered to the world in a manger brings hope, hope that brings life, and life that brings forgiveness.  His story is forgiveness from that moment the news of that eventful winter night broke throughout the Jewish, Judean, Samaritan, Hebrew, Greek and Roman communities.

Yes, forgiveness does not begin with the crucifixion; it does begin with the moment her cousin announced her blessed-art-thou-amongst-women immaculate conception.  What transpired in the crucifixion was the fulfillment of the mission of The One to salve mankind from the pit of man-made annihilation caused by unrestrained men.

And this is not forgiveness as written in the Book of All Times:  Highly robed Administrators and Overseers of His Words who reside in strong-walled stone structures don’t seem to understand its profound meaning spoken of today.  Instead, they spark assemblies to rally for the unspeakable and inexplicable “un-forgivable” delivery of forgiveness.

Yes, His Christmas story is not just hope but light from the election fraud, truth from the big rally for his ouster funded by the Black Widow, justice for the victims extra-judicial killings, for the famers of that mega-farmland in Northern Luzon, and meaning why preachers do preach forgiveness and yet unforgiving.

His story is your story of pains and sufferings, epic fails and frustrations, sexual and marital abuses, psychological incapacity and irresponsibility of spouses, cancer cells and tumors, kidney failures and cardiac conditions, diabetes and high blood pressures – truly, His is above all these.

One more time, his Christmas story is forgiveness:  I forgive you and you forgive others regardless of what is and what’s not!  After all, The One named Jesus does not forgive based on any condition – he does forgive unconditionally.

Yes, this is his Christmas story written on walls and edifices of his birth, death and resurrection:  From the manger to the shanty in Bethlehem to the John the Baptist Spring to the Baptism Site along Jordan River to the Cross at Mount Calvary.  Do we have reasons not to?

To err is human, to forgive divine? – Oh, this is just being human!  Absolutely, there is no reason at all to be skeptical.  Skepticism creates paranoia.  And paranoia kills!

Eid milaad saeed!