Christmas and the social aspects of the Catholic Church

W.T.A. Leslie FERNANDO

Christmas is a festival celebrated all over the world in a grand scale. People prepare months ahead for Christmas. The shops have full of goodies. Journals are filled with Christmas advertisements. Hotels organize Christmas lunches, dinners and dances. People rush in cities and there is so much glitter to make Christmas a merry and joyful event.

However, the birth of Jesus celebrated at Christmas is not such a fascinating, fantastic and extravagant event. According to the Gospel of St. Luke it was a very moving and touching humble event.

Augustus Caesar, the Roman Emperor at the time had decreed that all his subjects should come to their native place to be enroled at the Census. Joseph the poor carpenter came to the city of David called Bethlehem with his wife Mary pregnant with a child because he was of the house and lineage of David. As there was no room in a single inn for this helpless carpenter and his wife they took refuge in an abandoned manger in Bethlehem. There Mary got labour pains and delivered Jesus unto this world. The holy angels announced the good news not to the rich and affluent making merry in the city in Bethlehem but to some shepherds watching their flock in a nearby field.

The shepherds followed the light from heaven and found the baby Jesus in the cowshed with Mary and Joseph. It was to this very cowshed that the three Wise Men from the East came in search of the divine baby guided by a star and paid their homage with gifts - frankincense, myrrh and gold.

Thus Christ the King of Kings was born poor and humble in a manger, while his divinity was proclaimed by holy angles, innocent shepherds and the three Wise Men. Christ being the incarnation of God, he could have been born to power, wealth and worldly distinction. But in his birth Christ had made the important decision, the luxuries of the world was not for him and he would reject them for himself.

When Christ began his Ministry, he went from place to place saying 'Foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests but the son of Man has no place to lay his head'. (Matthew 8/20). He selected his disciples not from princes or the nobility nor from the patrician classes or the rich but from fisherfolk an underprivileged class, tax collectors a despised class and publicans the outcasts.

Christ moved with the lowly and humble. He mixed up with the rejected, discarded and the helpless. He associated with the sinners who were treated as outcasts. The woman of Samoria was astonished and shocked when Jesus asked some water from her to drink because they were treated untouchables.

Christ recognized the dignity and worth of human labour. He said "Come unto me all that labour and heavily burdened and I will give you rest". (Matthew 11/28). Christ denounced exploitation and said "It is easier for a camel to go through an eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Christ set up a Church opting for the poor on this earth. Christ enjoined his disciples to go to far distant lands and undergo difficulties to spread the message of God. He instructed them to lead humble lives saying "Provide neither gold nor silver nor copper in your purses. Nor two coats or bag for your journey, nor sandles or a staff for the workman is worthy of his meet." (Matthew 10/9.10).

The Apostles and the early Christians adhered to the teachings of Christ to the letter. They shared their income within the community and led simple and austere lives. The rulers feared Christianity as they stood for equality and justice. The rulers began to suppress Christianity by persecuting Christians and even putting them to death. But more they persecuted the Christians more Christianity spread.

In some countries those who disagreed with the church were burnt alive by the Inquisition. The Church also backed Crusades to convert people to Christianity by force. Some scientists like Galileo who came into conflict with the dogmas of the Church were persecuted and some others were put to death. Later the Popes deteriorated to the status of worldly rulers, the Church got involved in secular affairs and the Vatican witnessed many scandals.

In 1848 Karl Marx and Fredrich Engles released the Communist Manifesto to bring relief to the toiling masses. In 1891 Pope Leo XIII issued the 'Rerum Novarum that addressed the conditions of the working class to ameliorate them. But it was never implemented. On the other hand Pope Pius XI in his Encyclical Quadragesimo in 1931 maintained not only Marxism but even moderated socialism cannot be brought into harmony with dogmas of the Church.

The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka too allied itself with reactionary forces. In 1940s the Catholic clergy who branded themselves under the banner of 'Social Justice' did everything possible to sabotage the Free Education Scheme but failed to likewise they campaigned against the Paddy Lands Act that brought relief to the tenant farmer.

The Vatican Council II (1962-65) brought about significant changes in the Catholic Church. It acknowledged the truths found in other religious. It directed that the Catholic rituals should be performed in national languages in an indigenous background. It relaxed the attitude of the Catholic Church towards modern thinking and mellowed its attitude towards Marxist orientated socialism.

The Catholic clergy and religious were allowed to move more freely with the public to serve people.

Everybody expected that the new outlook of the Catholic Church would bring about a renewal beneficial to mankind. It did not happen and there is a crisis in the Church after the Vatican Council II. There are various interpretations to Christianity and one is at a loss to understand the doctrine. The spirituality in the religious has been relegated to the background.

There are contradictions among the theologians resulting in confusion. Attempts are being made to give a political dimension to religion and some suggest that Christians should set up a kingdom of God in this world.

After the Vatican Council II instead of authoritarian religious life various congregations have introduced liberal reforms. This has led to the degeneration of the standards of the Catholic clergy making the vows of poverty and chastity meaningless.

The only good thing effected by the Vatican Council II was to perform Catholic rituals in national languages in an indigenous setting. This has made the Catholic rituals meaningful to people and enabled them to actively participate in them. However, under the present Pope there is a tendency to renew Latin services. Recently it was reported in Catholic journals that they are going to examine haphazard change over. Is it a move to bring back Latin services?

The representatives of the then Patriotic Catholic Front making submissions before the Sinhala Commission in 1997 condemned the Catholic Church opening branches of private schools all over the country to cater to the rich. The great educationist Fr. W. L. A. Don Peter never charged anything on admission of students when he was the Rector of the St. Joseph's College, Colombo. He was also one of the first to denounce International schools mindful of the fact that the Catholic Church too was involved in setting up earliest International schools.

Fr. Joseph E. Fernando SJ in his celebrated work 'The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka - Reflections' (2006) aptly analyses the situation as thus: "Today in the life of most of the faithful, Western liberal bourgeois Christianity is a cancer that kills the intimate relationship with Christ - a subtle temptation that misdirects the believer away from God in different ways. It tends to uphold capitalistic, hedonist and individualistic set of values not in keeping with spirituality based on the Gospel (page 65).

As Fr. Joseph E. Fernando vividly put it "We have to repent for our bourgeois Christianity and be converted." It is time for us to appreciate the significance of the birth of Christ in a manger and set up a Church sincerely opting for the poor in accordance with the true spirit of the life and teachings of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

(The writer is a former President of the Newman Society Alumni Association.)