JOY FOR THE WHOLE PEOPLE
There are things that only simple people catch on to. Truths that only the common people are capable of figuring out. Joys that only the poor can enjoy.
Thus is the birth of the Savior in Bethlehem: not something for the rich and wealthy people; an event that only the educated and wise can understand; something reserved for select minorities. It’s a popular event. A joy for the whole people.
Even more. It’s a few poor shepherds, considered in the Jewish society as people seldom honored, marginalized by many as sinners, who are the only ones awake to hear the news. Still today it’s that way, though frequently the poorest and most marginalized have remained so far from our Church.
God is free. That’s why God is more easily welcomed by the poor than by those who think they can acquire everything with money. God is simple, and is closer to humble people than to those who go about obsessed with always having more. God is good, and God is understood better by those who know how to care for one another as brothers and sisters than by those who live selfishly, enclosed in their own welfare.
It’s still true what’s implied in the story of the first Christmas. The poor have a more open heart to Jesus than those who live comfortably. Their heart enclosed a «sensibility toward the Gospel» that has frequently ended up atrophied in the rich. The mystics are right when they say that in order to welcome God, it’s necessary to «empty ourselves», «let go of ourselves», «become poor».
As long as we go about seeking the satisfaction of our desires, far from the suffering of the rest, we will know distinct levels of excitement, but not the joy that is announced to the shepherds of Bethlehem.
As long as we keep feeding the desire of possessing, we can’t sing within ourselves the peace that was intoned in Bethlehem: «The idea that one can promote peace while being driven by the efforts of possessing and of privilege is an illusion» (Erich Fromm).
We will have more and more things to enjoy, but they won’t fill up our inner emptiness, our boredom and loneliness. We will reach more and more notable successes, but we’ll find growing among us rivalry, conflict, and merciless competition.
José Antonio Pagola
Translator: Fr. Jay VonHandorf
