BY FR. SHAY CULLEN
THE CHRISTMAS story is not just about a child born two thousand years ago in dire poverty, to poor parents in a dirty stable with animals for company. It was a new beginning of the great struggle of good against evil, right against wrong, truth against lies. That struggle goes on everywhere today evident between the rich and the poor.
Excessive, un-shared, (likely stolen) surplus wealth of the irresponsible and greedy rich people is mostly spent on pleasure and vice by the powerful oppressive rulers. Millions suffer hunger and dire poverty as a result and that makes the gross inequality unjust and evil and it must be challenged peacefully and truthfully. Family dynasties stifle freedoms and oppress the poor and keep them in the slavery of grinding poverty. This is the source of social evil and injustice.
The downtrodden cannot ever rise up from the hunger and suffering caused by jack-boot tyranny unless they come to know and believe with an unshakable faith that they are children of God with exalted human dignity and constitutional rights and must act to win their own freedom. Who will help them? These are the challenges and truths inspired by the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth, truths about their rights and dignity that are not shared with them. That deprivation of truth is part of their poverty.
The Philippines is close to suffering the greatest inequality in the world. It ranks at 102nd place out of 160 nations and it is number 19 out of 25 countries in the Asia-Pacific region. It is sixth place from rock bottom on the poverty table, all the while the rich grow richer. Corruption and evil doing is the reason for this inequality.
It will be a bleak hungry Christmas for 25 million Filipinos and totally miserable for 16 million in dire poverty. While the one percent of the Asian rich own 25 percent of all the wealth, the number of poor in Asia has increased by eight percent to 1.4 billion hungry people. In the Philippines, it is estimated that the rich make up just one percent of the population yet they own 45 percent of the total wealth of the Philippines.
The life, teaching and message of Jesus of Nazareth is that human dignity, social justice and a life free of hunger and want is what the Kingdom of God on earth is supposed to be. He taught freedom, friendship and love is for all persons, living with integrity as good Samaritans. All can choose to be a follower of Jesus of Nazareth and believe with him and act for justice so that goodness and truth will eventually overcome evil. That is what Christmas is all about and that little girl was one who understood it. (preda.org)/PN
