“Merry Christmas”, “Happy Christmas”, “Blessed Christmas” “reflective” Christmas: On Christmas we use such words.
Listening to the Gospel will give us another impression:
it was not such a merry, happy, reflective day for the parents of Jesus.
But it was still a Blessed day, as they could accept the day and the new born baby as a blessing. So the day became a happy, merry, and reflective day not only to them, but to the whole world.
The Gospel passage begins with the order of the Caesar- to enrol the people. It was for the administration, for a better census and understanding of the groups of people in the territory, for tax collection and planning of the development of the kingdom.
Whether this administration was effective, is a question. People were unsatisfied because of corruption and slavery and were afraid of their leaders. Freedom was the dream of the people. This caused to the extreme groups like Zealots in Palestine.
The angels are proclaiming this peace, which was missing for the common, to all. A Freedom, which was really the dream of all the Israelites.
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Fr Thomas Kalathil
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