The Searching God!

Wednesday, December 25, 2024

The Nativity of the Lord

Is 62:1-5; Acts 1316-17, 22-25; Mt 1:1-25

A couple of years ago, in 2021, the story of a Chinese man who reunited with his kidnapped son after a 24-year search on a motorcycle won the hearts of many, and it became viral immediately. A finding his son, Guo Gangtang, the father wrote on social media, ‘Today is very important for me. My kid has been found. The future is full of happiness. God treats us kindly.’

The junior Guo was kidnapped when the two-and-a-half-year old boy was playing outside his home alone. The loss of the boy was such a shock to his father that his weight dropped from 80 kg to 60 kg, and his hair turned all white in the first month after the abduction. Since then, Guo Gangtang started printing his son’s picture and basic information on countless flyers to pass to whoever he met on the street, hoping to find clues about the boy’s whereabouts. He also made banners carrying his son’s photo and information and put them on his motorcycle that he rode around the mainland in search of the boy. 

Over the 24 years of his search for his son, Guo had been to all mainland provinces and regions, with his journey covering half a million kilometers. He had worn out 10 motorcycles during this time. During his relentless search for his son, Guo met with road accidents, experienced bullying from hooligans, and slept near bridge pillars when he had no money for accommodation. He contemplated suicide many times in the process, which yielded no result for nearly a quarter century. Recollecting on his life that was spent in searching for his lost son, Guo recounted to media personnel that ‘Only on the road, I felt I am a father. I have no reason to stop searching. And it’s impossible for me to stop.’

The moving real-life story of a father who searched for his son for nearly 25 years reflects very much the story of our God, who never stopped searching for the lost humanity for centuries. Luke 1:68 describes God’s passionate attempt to save His people: ‘He has visited and redeemed his people.’ The Tamil translation of the same reads, ‘Than Makkalai Thedivanthu Viduviththarulinar’ (‘He came searching for His people to redeem them’).

The image of the ‘searching God’ who never stopped looking for His people can be well understood from the scriptural passages. The story of the compassionate Shepherd (Mt 18:10-14; Lk 15:1-7) reminisces about the compassionate God in the Old Testament Who goes after His people whenever He finds them missing. The caring God asked Adam, ‘Where are you?’ (Gen 3:9). The compassionate God asked Cain, ‘Where is your brother Abel?’ (Gen 4:9). At Christmas, we celebrate the same God who comes asking, ‘Where are you?’ and has pitched His tent among His people (Jn 1:14). 

Moreover, what we celebrate at Christmas is the kindness of God, who looked at the sufferings of His people and came in person to respond to their suffering. In Exodus 3:7, we find the God who says, ‘I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.’ From these words, we discover the true nature of our loving God, who takes human suffering personally and responds to it. Hence, Christmas reminds us of the fact that Jesus comes not because everything is perfect but because he finds God’s people living in misery.

But the real question with which we must examine ourselves is if we ever understand the profundity of the truth that Christmas stands for. Do we find Christ at Christmas, or does he remain an alienated figure in the whole of the celebration? Recently, I came across a piece of news item in which a customer who finds the shop full of Christmas ornaments yells at the shopkeeper saying, ‘Would you better leave Christmas alone? What does Christ have to do with Christmas?’

How often are we sure that many of us or others did not think alike? Surely, Christmas has been so commercialized that it does a much better business these days. There is hardly a shop without either a Santa’s photo, or the red cap, or the red socks, or a star, or a greeting card, or a crib. But do all these mean that the truth of Christmas is understood by them in real terms? 

If the secular world is to blame for commercializing Christmas, we Christians are not an exception because we are far away from internalizing the truth of the Lord’s nativity. There are plenty of initiatives around Christmas. Carol singing, sharing of love through gifts and charities, decorating the church, practicing the choir, communal dining, gracing the occasion with costly new dresses, and a grand Eucharist, and whatnot? Do all these external manifestations add meaning to the spirit of Christmas in which God comes looking for us? If our preparations have not directed our hearts toward renewal, and if they do not help us encounter Christ at Christmas, I believe we need to reexamine the content of our preparations to welcome the Lord in our midst. 

Hence, there is no doubt that our Christmas celebration can benefit from the manner of our response to God’s initiative of incarnation. 

We Need to Be Found: The Divine History shows that God has a predilection for those who are unwanted and abandoned by society. As such, the least and lost become God’s people because no one looks for or after or is interested in them. This is what we celebrate at Christmas – the God who comes in search of His people asking, ‘Where are you?’ just as He went after Adam and Abel. But we need to be found by God. We cannot afford to hide ourselves as Adam did. We are children of light and have been created to live in the light. Let us show up to the God who comes passionately searching for us so that we may cherish the warmth of His embrace. 

Putting Christ Back into Christmas: It is very unfortunate that we need to think of putting Christ back into Christmas. At Christmas, everything peripheral has become central, and the Divine Child lying in the manger is not paid enough attention to. When we are inspired by the truth of God’s incarnation with a deeper understanding of Christ’s sacrifice, then our perspectives about Christmas will change forever. We can then overcome the temptations to be caught by the externalities of the celebration and concentrate on what we must internalize so that our lives and responses are shaped in the light of that truth. 

Personalizing Christmas: Personalizing Christmas would mean sharing the mind of God, especially in our love for our neighbors. Because God took our sufferings personally, he became a human. For the love he had for his people, he renounced his privilege as the Son of God to identify with us and to suffer for us. Living out the spirit of Christmas would then mean personalizing the suffering of our fellow humans and acting upon them to wipe their tears. Proclaiming the spirit of Christmas is to help our neighbors realize that they have God-loving people to shoulder their sufferings. True love is exemplified in solidarity with the needy humanity. Christmas offers the best example of it. 

Let us pray that our Christmas celebration will be a joyous encounter with God, who comes searching for us, and that our own response will be more meaningful by putting Christ back into Christmas and personalizing the meaning of his birth. 

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar