Good tidings




As part of the homily, the priest at church today asked the community: If Jesus Christ were to be born today in Makati, where exactly would He be born?

Then he went around soliciting responses. Someone answered OSMAK, which is what Ospital ng Makati is called. Someone else said Makati Med. A third said The Peninsula. Obviously, the priest was not getting the answer he wanted so he continued to solicit more answers...

Finally, he blurted: Of course he would still choose to be born with the poor!!! And then he enumerated the possible modern-day versions of the stable - a shanty in a squatter's colony, in a makeshift house under a bridge, perhaps in a sidewalk.

I didn't quite agree with what the priest said, but Catholic masses are not exactly platforms of democracy so of course I kept my ideas to myself.

But the news was on when I got home and there it was: Reasons why I think Jesus might not have to be born in squalid conditions today. On the news were stories of people reaching out to others, specially the poor. There was this news story about a man who went around hospitals to give financial assistance to families; he did so anonymously. There were other stories of families driving around distributing groceries, food, toys to the poor. There was also this jeepney driver who witnessed a hold-up incident in another jeepney and decided to follow the holduppers -as a result, the criminals were caught. There were other stories of a similar nature.

There are many stories like these that happen everyday. Unfortunately, they don't get featured in the news because...well, they are not sensational and controversial. But because it is Christmas today, our news programs were mostly about things positive.
Nativity photo courtesy of Freefoto.com

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