CHRISTMAS HERALDS THE BIRTH OF THE ETERNAL GALILEAN

Two thousand years ago there lived in the humble sea-side hamlet of Nazareth to the south of Galilee in Palestine, a carpenter’s son by the name of Jesus.

- Rev. Fr. Leopold Ratnasekera OMI

On the first-ever Christmas night, he was born under very adverse conditions far away from his hometown in the city of Bethlehem near Jerusalem, supposedly called the city of King David, the proverbial monarch of Israel from whose dynasty people expected their future Messiah to emerge. It was a cold winter’s night that saw Jesus born in a stable in the back yard of an inn. The mother wrapping up the infant in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger of straw for his bed. It was an incredible birth that was attested to by the angelic chorus that rang out over the hills glorifying God and announcing peace in the world to all people of goodwill. Those who had the privilege of coming to know this news, were the humble shepherds who were keeping their flocks by night nearby. Exultant with joy they hastened to the inn’s stable to gaze at the face of the newborn, So were the three wise men from the east who journeyed under the guidance of a strange star making their way to Bethlehem with their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. The babe that saw the light of day that night was destined to be the Eternal Galilean who would take on the world and its humanity with its struggles and hopes, making himself the Light of the world, the healer of all infirmities and a person who would bestow life in its fullness.

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