THE INTERNATIONAL - International Indian

[ FUTURE QUEST ]
Christmas: Priceless Gift for All or Just One
Religion’s Unauthorised Monopoly?
Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? Who hath gathered the wind in his fists? Who hath bound the waters in a garment?
Who hath established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and what is his son’s name, if thou canst tell? – Proverbs 30: 4
Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it. – Luke 18: 7
I am not alone at all, I thought. I was never alone at all. And that, of course is the message of Christmas. We are never alone.
– Taylor Caldwell
[ By FRANK RAJ ]
At my age, Christmases past tend to blur
and remain a few jumbled memories.
Special family traditions and joyful
childhood moments eclipse what could have
been filled with more meaning rather than just
participating in Christmas as the clichéd ‘eat,
drink and make merry’ syndrome the world
thinks it is. My Christmas memories make me
melancholy-I somehow knew I was missing the
wood for the trees going along with customs that
made it something it wasn’t. One activity was
worthwhile though - every year in the freezing
Delhi winter my brothers and I would go carol
singing with a bunch of schoolmates mostly
from St. Columba’s. We didn’t fully understand
the good news we were singing about, but we
eagerly anticipated yuletide treats from the
homes that invited us to share homemade
fruitcake and maybe something more. The
lyrics so universally cherished, have stayed with
us, and we know most carols verbatim.
As I look back on those days I wish the words
of my favorite carols had penetrated my mind
sooner rather than much later. Remember your
God in your youth, the scriptures urge us. I did
not know that injunction and my heart sighs, for
mine could have been a life more responsible. In
a society that still lives for consumption, I was
aimless and lost for a big chunk of my youth.
My biggest regret is my delay in unlocking the
wisdom of the scriptures - after nearly three
decades of blissful, costly ignorance.
Christmas is probably the greatest challenge
to the world for those who genuinely seek
to know God. If it’s the truth, (something
only individually discernible) it dares us to
investigate the most awesome event in history. It
is not a festival for irreverent, thoughtless merry
making, nor is it something to be celebrated only
in December by lighting up a Christmas tree.
And so it was that my first real Christmas
came at a time in my life when all the chickens
had come home to roost, and like the prodigal
I had run out of alternatives. It was actually in
August of 1976, when a remarkable but painfully
slow transformation began after I was ready to
admit my failures. From that point began the
gradual process of freedom as I started dealing
with seriously flawed character traits to put it
mildly that literally had me in chains. Bondages
broke one by one, and thankfully the process
of change still continues. My spiritual trek has
taken me a long way from institutional faith.
Like most people for much of my life I
staunchly adhered to what I thought was my
own religion. But I began to see clearly that God
couldn’t possibly care about masses of people
following this ritual or that tradition, especially
when they have no impact on men’s lives. Yet
in and out of our homes we allow ourselves to
be controlled by various religious middlemen
who claim a hotline to the giver of all life. I
rather sensed the Creator’s desire for a personal
relationship, not an emphasis on what pious men
and their strange rules demand.
Most importantly I realized I couldn’t
authenticate my life and I knew I was in trouble,
even by what I considered my own fairly decent
standards. A strong conviction of right and wrong
seemed to pierce my very being. How could I be
a different person I wondered with a helplessness
verging on despair as I wrestled with the
impossibility of change. Only when I glimpsed a
light beckoning at the end of what turned out to be
a much longer tunnel than it appeared to be at first,
did a flicker of hope suggest I could be whole.
I have been stumbling towards that light
ever since that first Christmas when the Truth
incarnated in my heart. Some folks change quickly
but my journey of understanding and personal
growth is a slow one. When a life goes astray
and gets bound in different ways, only God’s
intervention can help an individual overcome the
evil that is determined never to give up its hold.
Seeking power over their faction, political and
religious leaders and institutions have convoluted
the simple spiritual relationship available with
the Creator. To be loosed from their clutches,
one’s religion must cease to be the exclusive
militant obsession it is for many, if the truth is
to be grasped. We are human beings, not the
popular, divisive labels that all religions have
cleverly tacked on to us. The only true religion
is one where an individual serves and cares for
people not because God can be bribed with good
works but because he cares about his fellow man.
Understanding the miracle of what is known as
the Incarnation - God’s entry into history, holds the
key to man’s longing for an eternal home. It is the
greatest promise of the scriptures, and plain logic
dictates it can only be a free gift - impossible for
mortal man to earn. This is a prize no middleman
can play a role in obtaining for us, or any religious
membership promise. No religion can claim a
spiritual monopoly on our eternal salvation-none
has been given the authority.
Christmas is about simplicity and accessibility
not any kind of exclusivity. About a Savior who
came to seek and to save what was lost. In every
authentic Christmas a rebirth happens - Emmanuel
- God with us and his Truth rejuvenates us.
Things could possibly have been simpler if we
did not have a free will, but God designed us to
have it. The gift of Christmas is available to all,
but so is the choice of accepting it or rejecting it.
Regardless of the choice that one makes,
hopefully it is only after thoroughly investigating
the possibility that 2,000 years ago God may
have intruded into human life.
Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end,
Futurequest is a search for the truth in our times.
Frank Raj is the founding editor of
The International Indian.
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