Christmas is a time of joy, hope, celebration, and family gatherings. During our busy Christmas preparations, we gather with others at church for a time of prayer and reflection to celebrate the real meaning of Christmas – the immense love of God for each of one of us made visible in the birth of the child Jesus, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.
A few years ago, I had the opportunity to visit our Columban missionaries in Pakistan around the time of Advent. Columban Fr Dan O’Connor from New Zealand invited me to visit his parish in Badin in the Sindh Province. One afternoon, I accompanied Fr Dan to celebrate mass with a family who lived an hour from the church. As we drove along the narrow dirt road in the middle of the parched fields in the heat of the Pakistani sun, I saw two young boys walking barefoot across the fields, herding a few goats. I thought to myself, “Why aren’t they at school?” Then I recalled I was in Pakistan, where most children live in poverty with no opportunity for formal education.
We shortly arrived at the house of the Catholic family. It was a simple mud-brick house with a straw roof situated at the corner of the fields. We were welcomed with great joy and affection by the father of the house. A few moments later, the two boys I had seen in the fields arrived home with their goats. The father proudly introduced me to his sons.
Fr Dan came well prepared to bring some joy and excitement into the harsh lives of the two boys. When he produced the cricket bat and tennis ball wound in white tape, their faces beamed with wide-open smiles. We went out onto the dirt road and set up our makeshift cricket pitch. No money could pay for the happiness and laughter we shared together in play that day.
Later, we gathered for mass on the floor of the attached stable, which was home to the goats at night-time. It was already dark. There was no electricity, but Fr Dan had come prepared with a couple of torches.
During his homily, Fr Dan set up a small crib in front of the altar as he told the Christmas story of the birth of Jesus. The father and his sons listened intently. Fr Dan then gave the boys a picture of the nativity scene to colour in. When finished, they proudly showed us their masterpieces before hanging them on the stable wall next to the pictures they had drawn during previous masses.
After mass, the father apologised for being unable to offer us a meal because his wife had gone away for two weeks with his four older children to harvest the crops of a nearby landowner. Instead, he offered us a cup of tea. Earlier, Fr Dan had wisely advised me to politely refuse the cup of tea because my stomach would not handle the level of lead in the water.
When it was time to say goodbye, I felt a strong urge to stay. I had truly encountered the joy of Christmas in the sacred lives of this humble family and the sacredness of the Eucharist celebrated not in an ornate church but on the mud floor of a stable, similar perhaps to the stable in Bethlehem. Poverty had prevented the two boys and their father from formal education but not from being educators on family values. That day, I was the one educated on what keeps a family together – love, respect, generosity, simplicity, hospitality and a welcoming of the stranger. At this time of the year, we are reminded of these family values, which are the priceless Christmas gifts we bring to our family celebrations.
Pope Francis said in one of his midnight mass homilies: “Let us allow the Child in the manger to challenge us but let us also allow ourselves to be challenged by the children of today’s world who are not lying in a cot caressed with the affection of a mother and father, but hiding underground to escape bombardment, on the pavements of a large city, or at the bottom of a boat overladen with immigrants.”
I wish you, your families, and loved ones a blessed and holy Christmas and a safe and happy New Year.
Fr Peter O'Neill
Regional Director of Oceania
directoroceania@columban.org.au
Listen to "From the Director - Let the child in the manger challenge us"
Related links
- Read more from The Far East - November/December 2023
