We're Creating a Monster

Every year, especially during Christmas season, the traffic gets worse, the malls are more packed, and we are driven by this unquenchable thirst for more purchases and items to buy.

photo courtesy of iremit.com.au

I see something sinister behind all this. Something is out of place.

I am aware that this season is traditionally the season to give gifts to our family, friends, co-workers, and just abut anyone. It is the season of giving - or at least it used to be. In our desire to give material gifts, are we spawning a monster feeding on our excessive consumerism?

For example, people were all up in arms when it was declared that prices of electricity will be going up. That meant that prices of basic goods are soon to follow up as well. You think that would deter people from going to the mall? Today, at the Mall of Asia, the crowd was so gargantuan you would think it was the feast of the Nazareno. What happened? I thought we were trying to save money because of the high prices of goods?

photo courtesy of https://www.facebook.com/Sanlakas14

Why were there so many people at the malls this season? It's like we're all zombies out there, with no other choice, no idea of what fun is outside of the mall. Fr. Chito Dimaranan, SDB, my mentor from way back, has this to say about this mall culture:

Malls are now the only leveler in society. There is no exclusion, but inclusion. At malls no one knows if one lives in a shack, as everyone has smartphones, same dresses, and the same disheveled hair look. In the mall, everyone can more or less have the same thing, provided you pay, of course. No membership dues. No monthly consumables ... just plain and simple fun defined according to the rituals of the cathedrals of commerce.

Are we slowly veering away from the true spirit of Christmas and turning towards a consumerist, politically-correct, no-nonsense, "happy holidays" kind of season?

I have experienced the mad rush of Christmas shopping before. Several years back, it was different. It felt different. Back then, there was a spirit of rushing, a tone of necessity with the shopping. People want to get their shopping done so they could get back to the family ASAP and spend more time with them. The past few years, however, I have this feeling I cannot quite put my finger on. It's like we are slowly turning into mindless robots. Or animals. Animals driven by instinct to shop for more and more each year.

My feelings tell me that the more we participate in this consumerist culture, the more we miss out on Christmas itself; ironically, in our quest to buy more gifts, we are slowly forgetting that Christ's incarnation is one of the greatest gifts mankind has ever received.

I will not be surprised if we become like this a few years from now:

We Pinoys are proud that we have the happiest celebration of Christmas in all the world. That is going to change if we continue to feed this monster of consumerism. Call it cliche, but Christ really is the reason for the season, and the more we mindlessly buy things that will not make us happy, the more we are led away from the one true source of happiness itself.

Christmas IS Pro-Life

Many of us are aware of the Christmas story, which starts from the annunciation of the archangel Gabriel to Mary, the mother of Jesus. After some reflection, I found out that this Christmas story, which was told to us time and again when we were little children, and the very same Christmas story which I hope we are passing on to our children, and their children’s children – I found out that this story holds not one but several pro-life pointers for all of us to think about. Christmas is indeed pro-life. 

1. There is no room for Christ for those whose lives are full of worldly things. Have you ever heard of people saying something like, “I don’t want a baby because it gets in the way of the job I want.” Or something to that effect?

This is the queue to the gift-wrapping section. Every Christmas season. Every single year. 

Mary’s fiat – let it be done unto me as you say! – required a heart that was full of God’s grace, and less of our own selfish motives, and much less of this world’s empty promises of wealth, fame, and possessions. When Joseph and Mary traveled to Bethlehem, it wasn’t that they didn’t find any place to stay. There were lots of places to stay, but not one person who was willing to open their doors for them. Eventually, they found someone who was willing to lend his own manger, a little act of generosity that went a long, long way for Joseph and Mary and Jesus, the infant.

2. Help, even as you need help yourself. 99% of us pro-lifers are people in need of some sort of assistance – financial, emotional, professional, etc .Mary went out of her way to help her cousin, Elizabeth, who was six months into her pregnancy, even as she was pregnant of her own child as well. God rewards those who make great effort to reach out to other people despite their own circumstances. For some of them, however, helping others and making a difference in their lives is a reward by itself.

So don't forget to send me some gifts! :) just kidding

3. Heart of Gold, Will of Steel. Mary must have had the courage of a thousand men to allow herself to be the mother of Christ. She could imagine how her future husband would reject her and break up with her. She could imagine the backlash of her society with her being pregnant without having a husband – a sin punishable by stoning to death. But she went through with it, having total faith and confidence in the providence and ways of God.

Nowadays, being a pro-lifer means being very unpopular, going against the whims and caprices of this anti-life society. Argentinian feminists burned an effigy of Pope Francis, who stood firm on his pro-life, anti-abortion stand. If they could do that to the pope, imagine what the world can do to us, ordinary pro-lifers. The pro-life advocacy ain’t for the soft-spoken and for the mild-mannered. The advocacy requires all of us brandish wills of steel.

In Argentina, these men barricaded themselves in front of a Cathedral that these angry feminists
targeted to vandalize, following Pope Francis' statement against abortion. These men are awesome! 

4. Pro-life, Pro-poor. A lot of skeptics ask us: Why don’t you ask your God why are there rich people who have more than enough wealth to last until their grandchildren’s children, and why are there poor people who don’t even have enough to buy their own meal? If I were God, however, I would ask mankind the same thing. I gave you all the material blessings you will ever need. Why be greedy about it to the point that you have more and others have less?

Even the infant Jesus did not escape this poverty. He was born in a manger, in a place more suited for animals than human beings. This is God’s way of reminding us of two things:

a. Our priority in our advocacy should be to  promote the culture of life, family, and marriage especially to the poor, who are the main targets of the anti-life movement. The RH law was intended especially for the poor to have access to contraceptives. Ironically, they struggle to have access to a lot of things, like food, clean water, shelter, education, and jobs, and here comes the government telling them that these contraceptives provided to them ‘empower’ them, especially their women. What a twisted, confused world we live in!

b. Christ tells us that there is dignity in being alive. Period. Dignity is afforded to both the rich and the poor, no matter how the former tries to rob the latter of it. There are two groups of rich people: the ones who make a system that will make them rich people richer, and the poor poorer; the other group of rich people are being paid by the first group to sustain this corrupt system. An example of this is the RH law, which purportedly was passed to address the needs of women and the poor, but in reality pays lip service to them by failing to address the real root of their problems.

On the other hand, there are groups of people on the opposite end of the pendulum who think that wealth is all the poor needs. I had this discussion with an atheist a few weeks ago, and he said that the Vatican should sell its riches and give it to the poor; moreover, the Church should stop collecting from the poor during masses. I told him of personal encounters I had with the poor, who, despite their poverty, have no qualms giving much of the little they have for the Church. I told this atheist that it would be insulting for these poor folk to tell them not to give to the Church.

Makes sense, right? 

Part of our work as pro-lifers is to uphold the dignity that the poor have in themselves, and to fight the corrupt systems that deny the poor of their rights.

5. Wisdom that comes from Christ’s Light – The Three Wise Men are some of the most mysterious characters in the Bible. We do not know where they came from, we do not know whether they knew each other prior to their journey towards the infant Christ, we do not know how they came to know about his birth. We do not even know why they were called wise men, but this we do know: they tried to follow that bright star that lead them to the infant Christ, the light that came from God Himself, and by this they deserve to be called wise.

This is the same light that made them aware of King Herod’s ulterior motive of finding baby Jesus and having him killed, and the same light that prompted them to go back to their homeland through a different way. Our encounter with Christ should lead us towards a similar change of heart. We should turn our backs against evil and wrongdoing and turn towards the Light of Christ.This is perhaps the best gift we can give to God this Christmas – that  our lives may be shining lights that all point towards Christ.

Merry Christmas to you, your family, and to the people you love.