Editorial
Merry Christmas
Jesus spread the message of love and compassion
A brilliant star in the sky over Bethlehem more than two thousand years ago pointed to the birth of Jesus Christ and hinted at the colossal impact he would have on the fate of mankind. For Jesus brought to men and women all across the globe, at a time when imperial Rome was in decline, the message that faith in God was all, that morality was the essence of the creed that ultimately mattered. Like every other prophet before him, he was ridiculed by men of lesser intelligence and little wisdom. Persecuted in all forms and in all manner, Jesus Christ nevertheless persisted in spreading the message that God loved all His creations, that indeed he, Jesus, was the chosen one to disseminate His message to all men and women.
Jesus spoke of tolerance, of love spreading out and suffusing the world with its glow and thereby putting to flight every element of negativism that militates against the fundamental good which defined Creation. If you are hit on one cheek, said he, turn the other cheek to the one who has assaulted you. It was through such a demonstration of non-violence that the founder of Christianity sought to leave his imprint on the human consciousness. And yet a prophet is not honoured in his own land. And treacherous beings lurk within the tent. Judas betrayed Jesus. And Jesus' enemies, in a macabre demonstration of worldly arrogance, put an end to his life on the cross. But God's power, proving as always a whole lot more substantive and purposeful than man's shallow notions of himself, raised Jesus from the dead. The message of Jesus' love was thenceforth to move on, inexorably, eventually encompassing diverse regions of the globe.
It is a message of the compassion and the love of God, of His Creation, that Jesus instilled into the human psyche in the times when he walked the earth. It was through his suffering, through dying young at the hands of his enemies that he held up the true glory of the Almighty. On Christmas Day, it is Jesus' message of love for all, compassion for those who have nothing and remembrance of a higher power that watches over all mankind that the devotees observe today.
To the followers of the Christian faith, here in Bangladesh and across the world, we say 'Merry Christmas.'
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