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Christmas Special Once Christianity was legalized by the Emperor Constantine with the Edict of Milan in 313 A.D., these feast days could be celebrated publicly. This happened slowly at first. As believers began to share their faith, they realized that many of them had developed slightly different traditions. The days on which saints’ feasts were celebrated did not always align. Some saints were known only in their local communities while some had become famous throughout the Church. Pope St. Julius I, whose papacy ran from 337 to 352, worked to make the celebrations of the universal Church more uniform. Saints’ feasts became part of the Church calendar, locally in the case of saints who were known only in a small area, and universally in situations where the saint’s fame had spread throughout the Church. And there was one last detail left to Julius: establishing the date of Christmas. When Was Jesus Born?: During the time of Julius I, Christians were still arguing - sometimes violently - about whether Jesus was divine. They did not always agree on the details of his life, either. One of these details was the exact date of Jesus’ birth. The Bible doesn’t mention a date, so there was no single authority that could end the controversy. Several branches of the Church celebrated the day on different dates, each of which had its own rationale. Some tried to identify the astronomical event that led the Magi to Bethlehem and extrapolated the date from there. Others had ancient traditions that led them to celebrate a given date. Several of these dates clustered around late December and early January (though some differed wildly). It fell to Pope Julius to rule finally on the date when the Western Church would celebrate Christ’s birth. His choice was 25 December. This was not an arbitrary choice. In many regions, this date corresponded closely with when the feast was already celebrated. There was also a sound correlation with another feast on the liturgical calendar. But the single most persuasive reason for settling on late December was more political - there was a long-standing Roman celebration already being observed around that date. T h e R o m a n O r i g i n s o f Christmas: Despite such disastrous missteps as the destruction of the Temple, the crucifixion of Jesus and the use of humans as party lanterns, the Roman Empire had a vibrant culture. One of the biggest holidays celebrated by the Roman people was Saturnalia. Saturn was the god of sowing, among other things, so there was some rationale for appealing to him during the shortest days of the year (the winter solstice falls on December 21 or 22) in hope that the sun might return again and provide life support for that agrarian culture. Catullus called the Saturnalia “the best of days” (Catullus 14.15) for its deep roots in the celebration of the winter solstice and the rebirth of light and mirth in the heart of winter. The festival dates varied through the course of Roman history, but began as the feast day of Saturn (17 Dec) and his wife, Ops (19 Dec), both ancient Roman fertility deities. Saturn was the god of agriculture (merging later with the Greek god Kronos) while Ops was the goddess of plenty and mother earth. During the Roman Empire the ever-popular festival was extended to seven days, from 17 Dec through 23 Dec. In each Roman home, the master might wait on his own servants, and one of the slaves was commonly chosen as Saturnalicius Princeps (Master of the Saturnalia), who could order others around in a complete reversal of roles. On the final day (23 Dec), everyone exchanged small gifts including sigillaria(small pottery dolls) for the children and cerei (small candles) for adults. In the middle of winter: Although the cultural observance of Saturnalia may have influenced the decision to set the date for Christmas on 25 Dec, celebrating the birth of Christ in the middle of winter makes perfect sense. Christ is the intersection of all things. He brings the light into the darkness - when better to remember this than during winter’s longest nights? He brings eternity into time - how better to be mindful of this than to see the traces of ancient practices in our modern celebrations? What better moment to reflect on both the brevity and great expanse of time than at the close of one year and the beginning of the next? And Christ is the intersection of East and West - the skygazing mystics of the East came to honor him; his birth occurred in Bethlehem because his parents traveled there to be counted for the Roman census. To situate the celebration of his birth between the ancient date of 6 Jan, used in the Eastern Church, and the Roman winter festival combines the best of both. The selection of 25 Dec as the date for Christmas is a profound reminder to us that ordinary things do not somehow “corrupt” what is holy. On the contrary, the Incarnation elevated this material world - and especially our human nature - to a new level of sanctity. The Church does not minimize Christmas by locating it on the date of a pagan feast; rather, it elevates that feast and the people who celebrated light and life and family in the centuries before Christ. It remembers that, though they did not have the same opportunity to believe in Jesus that we have today, they knew and honored what was best about humanity - the very humanity for whom Christ did not hesitate to die. Jesus might have been born in the middle of May, for all we know from Scripture, but I agree with Pope Julius I - the quiet of winter is the best time to remember the occasion. How does Christmas remind you of the sanctity of ordinary things? This Christmas as you decorate a common tree with even more common tinsel, consider how the birth of Jesus has changed everything. - Excerpted from A Catholic Christmas, by Kathleen M. Carroll, St. Anthony Messenger Press, ©2011. • Courtesy: http://www.americancatholic.org JIVAN: News and Views of Jesuits in India NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2012 24
Jesuits - Assistancy When twelve Masters met Twelve Novice Masters of South Asian Assistancy gathered at Loyola Hall, St.Xavier’s, Ahmedabad for their annual meeting on 02 – 07 Sept ‘12. Fr Shekhar Manickam, SJ, novice master of Gujarat Jesuit province, organized the meeting very meticulously as decided in our last annual meet held at Mango, Jamshedpur. We began our meeting with a Holy Eucharist celebrated by Fr Jose Changanacherry, SJ, provincial of Gujarat province, who welcomed us warmly and invited us to be like our first Novice Master, St Ignatius of Loyola For the first two days we had dream work input by Fr Anthony Mattapally, SJ (PAT). These sessions enabled us to discover the richness of our dreams and the effectiveness of dream work in accompanying our novices. Without analyzing and interpreting when we invite the dreamer to just narrate his dreams from within, freely and spontaneously, we could see lots of creative energy welling up from within the person. This can surely build and form our formees. Personally I find this dreamwork very handy in accompanying my novices. We are grateful to Fr Tony Mattapally SJ for enlightening us. This was followed by a day out, visiting Jesuit communities and apostolates in and around Ahmedabad. Our visit to Gandhi Ashram in the native state of Mahatma Gandhi and our visit to Unteshwari temple, an icon of Inculturation are worth mentioning. After the visit we enjoyed a melodious song, sumptuous dinner and guided tour of the novitiate given by eleven novices of Gujarat Jesuit noviciate. We spent the next half day with Fr Gratian Carlo, SJ, Assistancy Coordinator for Formation, who spoke to us on issues and concerns related to formation in South Asian Assistancy. His sharing helped us keep in mind certain issues in novitiate formation. We spent the last two days in sharing our experiences and challenges as Novice Masters. We found this sharing very enriching, strengthening, enlightening and supportive. There were seven newly appointed Novice Masters participating in this meeting. They found this meeting very helpful and there was so much to learn from each other. We felt inspired and enriched as we had a chance to interact with Fr Hedwig Lewis SJ the great writer who resides in this community. Novice Masters of South Asian Assitancy felt the warm and generous hospitality of Gujarat Jesuit province. We whole heartedly express our gratitude to Fr.Shekhar Manickam SJ who organized the meeting and Fr Superior and community of St Xavier’s High School who hosted the meeting. We ended the meeting with evaluation and planning the next meet. - R. Antony Raj, SJ 25 years of Gurjarvani Gujarat Church has a rich tradition of using effective media to share the Good News. From the beginning bhajans, processions, pageantry, theatre and film strips were used in liturgy and faith formation. “Audiovisual Service” began in Baroda in 1975 for audio-visual productions and training. In 1987, the Jesuit Media Centre was shifted to Ahmedabad, and named “Gurjarvani” (Voice of Gujarat). In 1992, a professional studio was built in St.Xavier’s College Campus. Good quality Video and Audio Productions increased, with four Jesuits and hired artists. Regular audio productions of bhajans and garbas; programmes on education, health and human development were released in Gujarati and Adivasi languages. In 1997, “Jai Adivasi” Studio was inaugurated in south Gujarat to record in Adivasi languages. Religious video productions were on sacraments, liturgy and Biblical themes. Educational videos included value education, sex education, media education, national harmony, gender issues, Adivasi reality, environment, and art and culture. Dubbed into Hindi and subtitled in English they reached places across India. Some of our video programmes were telecast, and some received international awards. Now Gurjarvani has taken Gujarati Catholic media to cyber space with bhajans, religious discourse, audio and video documentaries being seen and heard by thousands across the globe. Media Training workshops for Jesuits and Religious, teachers, social and health workers are frequently offered. Fr Ashok Vaghela, the new director, organizes intensive training in media theory and practice for Dalit and Adivasi youth to reinforce the identity and culture of the underprivileged. Xavier Film Academy for preparing students for commercial media will begin next month. Gurjarvani organized five Jesuit Artists’ workshops in different parts of India. The participants feel that due to these workshops Jesuit artistic talent is now respected and nurtured in the Society of Jesus. In 2002 Gurjarvani organized a Cultural month-long tour of the dance troupe of Darpana Academy of Performing Arts to Spain, in collaboration with ALBOAN, a Spanish Jesuit NGO. Fr Devasia, who was the director earlier, was one of the founding Fathers of UNDA-OCIC INDIA, the Catholic Communication organization, now called SIGNIS-INDIA. Fr Rappai, who was in charge later, was appointed secretary of JESCOM India, and elected President of Signis India. Gurjarvani will continue to bring the voices and images of women and men, old and young, rich and poor, urban and rural, literate and illiterate to be heard and seen by all. - Rappai Poothokaren, SJ JIVAN: News and Views of Jesuits in India NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2012 25
Page 2 and 3: By James Torrens, SJ Garden Urgency
Page 4 and 5: Cover Feature By Mathew J. Moolel,
Page 6 and 7: Cover Feature ‘The Son of Man’
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Page 10 and 11: Jesuits - Assistancy SAPI National
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Page 14 and 15: Jesuits - Assistancy Delegate for F
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Page 28 and 29: Obituaries Desiderio pinto, SJ (PUN
Page 30: By C. Amalraj, SJ Lessons 10 Lesson

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