The commercialization of Christmas has almost reduced our festivities into a Christ-less mess. Today, re-living that historic Christ-event isn’t easy even for the faithful few. Aren’t we prisoners of the ‘hopes’ and ‘fears’ of the middle class dream? I sometimes wonder if all the expressions of our festivities are increasingly middle class assertions. And therefore, it takes spiritual insight and discipline to recognize the Christ-event and its significance to our collective human experience. The specific challenge to the faithful is to re-visit the Christ-event amidst all the commercial jingles and re-discover the promise of the Christ-event. The road to Bethlehem, like as for Joseph and Mary, demands both a willingness to obey God and the courage to do the RIGHT thing. It must have been difficult for Mary, an unwed mother and Joseph, a surrogate father. Not just the long journey on a donkey for someone in an advanced stage of pregnancy but the entire sequence of events.

Mary had become ‘ pregnant being filled with the Holy Spirit’. She had submitted herself to God’s will at a great risk of embarrassment, public disgrace and ridicule. Her story, in all probability, may have been everybody’s favorite waste of time. Every stare, careless comment and even silence would have increased her pain of being misunderstood. An ‘unwed’ pregnancy is obnoxious in an Asian cultural backdrop. Worse still, she was engaged to Joseph. An engagement in the Jewish context had the same binding as that of a marriage relationship. In any case how would she explain herself to Joseph? For Mary, obedience to God meant loss of face, friends and family, Joseph included. And yet, Mary willingly went through it all. Perhaps, Mary should have backed out in the first place! - A response that would secure contemporary peer-group approval. That may have been the easy way out or the right thing to do. But, sometimes doing the right thing is not doing the RIGHT thing. Mary was willing to risk her own self in order to the RIGHT thing.

Joseph would have found it difficult too. True, he was unlike most men in that he did not publicly shame Mary for her supposed infidelity. But that doesn’t mean he had a big halo around his head. He, like most men, couldn’t accept Mary. He tried his best to wriggle himself out of this awkward situation by quietly calling off the engagement. Perhaps, given the circumstances that would be the right thing to do – a response that would secure contemporary peer-group approval. But, Joseph had his moment of Truth and willingly accepted Mary against all odds. Sometimes, doing the right thing is not doing the RIGHT thing. It must have taken a lot of courage to be willing to become a surrogate father and later to deal with suspicion, ridicule and neighborhood gossip.

Both Mary and Joseph saw the value and worth in believing God’s Word even if it meant embarrassment, ridicule and public disgrace. Both sensed a divine stamp in the sequence of events and were willing to yield themselves to God’s will. God’s will does not always promise ‘pain-free’ experience. To believe otherwise is a myth. Obedience to God might take us through embarrassment, ridicule and public disgrace and doing the right thing could be choosing the easy way out. But that may not be the RIGHT thing to do! The strength of what we believe in is measured by how much we are willing to suffer for those beliefs. O come all you faithful let us adore Him – Christ the Lord.