CHRISTMAS MESSAGE AT BCM COLLEGE (1997)

When suddenly this morning I was asked to give you the Christmas message, I felt totally at a loss. My first impulse was to duck out. Then I told myself “This is your college, your colleagues and your own dear students. What makes you so nervous?” And so, here I am.

But I could not land on anything specific. I have just put together a few stray thoughts to share with you.

This is my fiftieth Christmas. One thing I have been noticing is that the feelings and thoughts aroused by the Christmas season as the years go by, take deeper meanings and wider perspectives. When you are a child Christmas is pure excitement and the excitement depends on the glamour of the star that you hang at home, the crib, the fireworks, the sweets and all the new clothes. Then it gives way to promises of love and friendship, cards, carols and prayers. As you grow older you reach a time when you realize that Christmas is not simply getting as much joy and happiness as possible. It is giving as much as possible to your dear ones – because at the age of 18 or 20, you think that you are going to live till the end of the world and that you have all the Christmases to celebrate. But at the age of fifty you know you are more than halfway through your life and you are not so sure of even the next Christmas. Time becomes precious and you want to make the best out of it.

My message to you would be the same age-old one that the angels sang 2000 years ago in Bethlehem when Christ was born. It is the same message that rings all over the world now during Christmas season. Yes “Glory to God in the highest” – Let us praise him for this Christmas we celebrate together – “And peace on earth to those of goodwill”.

Let us take the second half. God send his only son Jesus Christ into a world without peace because there was no goodwill among men. Unfortunately after all these years we still seem to be at the same point. What is happening to all the peace and goodwill on earth?

There are so many other desirable things for men on earth and why did the angels sing about peace? They didn’t sing “talent and beauty to those of goodwill”. They didn’t sing “wealth and fame to those of goodwill”. I think it is because peace is the fondest gift God has reserved for his very special children – his children with goodwill.

What is this goodwill? A lot is being spoken about it. Bishops and priests speak about it in the church. Kings and rulers speak about it. You hear about it spoken at the summits and seminars on universal human rights movement – and it tends to make one thing that it something unattainable for the common man. But all the effort and time and money spent on these are not going to work if the human rights of the common people around us are not properly respected. This can be done by the spirit of goodwill alone. Goodwill is having the willingness to do good to others so that they will e happy. Goodwill is helping a friend out with notes and explanations when he or she has missed a lot of classes. Goodwill is getting up and giving your seat to a more deserving person in a bus or a train. It is waiting for your turn in a queue or at a counter. It is giving company to the lonely. It is a comforting word to a sad friend or a compliment to one who has achieved something. It is being a good daughter at home and a good student at college. This kind of goodwill is something you can gain with practice and effort and a little sacrifice. We all have it in our souls. Bring it out – like sculptor who carves out a beautiful statue out of a lump of rock. It is in there all the time. He chips off a bit here and a bit there and at last the beautiful statue emerges. Let us chip off our selfishness, laziness and indifference and bring out the shining gem of a soul in us.

This morning, as I sat in the library thinking about what I should speak to you, I noticed this patch of light moving up and down the ceiling and the wall. I saw it was the mischief played by the glass on my watch which had caught a ray of the sun from outside. I played with it for sometime, directing it towards the dark corners behind the cupboards – and then it struck me. We are also like that. We are all like broken pieces of glass the whole design of which we do not know. But with what we have let us throw light into the darkened corners of the hearts of people with love, knowledge, understanding and compassion.

I am reminded of a story. It is about a notice that was pasted in the elevator of a poor apartment building saying “Lost 100 dollars. Finder please give it to Mrs. Harrison of apartment number 18.” When Henry saw it he was concerned. Everybody in the building knew Mrs. Harrison. She was a lonely old lady, weak and sick too, who earned her livelihood by washing and scrubbing for others. The money must be all she has. So Henry went up planning to give her 100 dollars telling her he had found it. But when she opened the door, her face told Henry she had found it already. “Yes, John from the third floor got it. Mrs. William also got it. So did Mrs. Jackson. They all brought it to me and all the time it was lying deep in my coat pocket.” This is the kind of concern and goodwill that must permeate through a Christian society.

Let us wish and pray that our BCM home will be another Nazareth this Christmas – filled with the love of Christ. May his joy and peace bind us and live in us always. Wish you all a very happy Christmas.