Editorial
The observance of Christmas
It is time for a return to values
CHRISTIANS all over the world celebrated the birth of Jesus Christ yesterday. On a larger scale, people of all faiths recalled the birth and sacrifices of Christ as well as the values he espoused in his brief life. Like other prophets of old, Jesus Christ upheld the unity of men in a universe created to perfection by the Almighty. And like those prophets, he suffered for his belief and yet never wavered in his unshakeable faith in the ability of men and women to rise above self and dedicate themselves to the service of humanity.
Christmas this year has come at a time when much of the world happens to be going through some rather hard economic realities. The credit crunch in the West has led to people buying less simply because they cannot afford to spend as much as they used to. Christmas and New Year sales this year have been poor because of such factors, with the result that the celebrations have been quite muted in comparison to earlier times. There is thus a need for a renewal of hope, in the ability of nations and governments to tide over the crisis in order for global economic stability to return. An equally important point this Christmas season is the subtle return of values, in terms of rational thinking, that we have lately witnessed. The election of Barack Obama as president of the United States has been as much an acceptance of his mantra of change as it has been about a turning away by Americans from the neo-conservatism that has dominated the American political landscape in the last eight years.
In today's world, nothing suits us better -- and that irrespective of our various faiths --- than to turn around and return to the sense of ethics that Creation has been all about. Jesus Christ upheld the brotherhood of men. He knew, as the poet Archibald MacLeish once put it so succinctly, that we were brothers on the earth together, brothers who know they are truly brothers.
With apologies, a belated Merry Christmas to all our Christian friends and readers.
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