Mangaluru: “Christmas, the birth of Jesus, the Son of God, through Virgin Mary, is the only new thing under the sun. It is a unique event, never to be repeated. The angel told the shepherds on that Holy Night, “I bring you good news of great joy.” Indeed, many people experienced “great joy” because they saw God in human form,” said Rev. Peter Paul Saldanha, Bishop of Mangaluru in his Christmas message.
The name ‘Jesus’, means ‘God saves’ and Jesus saves us from our sins and death. He saves us from hatred and violence. He promotes love and fraternity. “We are fortunate that we live after his arrival. Jesus himself said, blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. Many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it,” emphasised the Bishop.
He went on to say that during the joyful events in our families, we say to our loved ones, “I love you.” What does it mean? It means, “I want you to live”. Since the whole of humanity is our family, how many people can we say, I want you to live?.
“Today, the greatest tragedy is that the culture of indifference is growing. It is worse than hate. If we love someone that person has a place in our heart and if we hate the person, he will be in our mind. But if we foster indifference, that person does not exist for us. We do not care whether he is alive or dead. This is the danger we are in, for many promote division, violence and death,” he stressed.
He further said that Jesus teaches us by example to care and share, to give and forgive the enemies, and never to hate anyone. Hatred and indifference will burn us before it burns others. It destroys our conscience. It destroys the goodness within us. We become “dead people walking”, a kind zombie.
“These days, we are talking about “Go green” for creating a Swachch Bharat. Can we foster a Swachch mind and pure heart without hatred and indifference? Let this Christmas be for us a challenge to foster a pure heart so that we see God in our neighbour and in nature. Let the people experience great joy in our presence,” he added.
