CHRISTMAS - WHEN HOPE WAS BORN IN US...

So many Christmas Days have come and gone by in my life. All I know is one thing – Christmas has always brought a special joy and feeling of hope in my heart that I never experienced on any other day of the year. As a child, I would be so excited when my older sisters and brothers would help my parents put up the Christmas tree, house decorations and make the Christmas crib. In fact years later, until I came to serve in Divine, I would still come back to my parents’ home a couple of days before Christmas and spend most of the hours making the crib and putting up a large Christmas tree and festive lights at home. My parents would often tell me not to bother as they were old now but I always saw their joy when all the twinkling lights on the Christmas tree and the Nativity Crib would make them smile and look young again. Then they would always thank me often expressing the joy of Christmas in our home as the Nativity Crib reminded them of Baby Jesus being born into the world. I believed it truly symbolized Jesus coming into all our hearts.

When we drove home after the Christmas Vigil Mass, the 1^st thing as we drove down the hill was to see all the beautifully lit-up multi-coloured twinkling lights and presents under the Christmas tree in our home through the glass door – which in later years were mainly all for my parents! It was a special time of the year when we could show in a tangible way our deep love for them and to be with them! In our family home, even our family dogs’ house was always festively decorated for Christmas and even they always seem extra joyful and playful sensing that Christmas is a special night and they got special meals and treats too.

Is it necessary to celebrate Christmas and make special efforts to remember what Christmas means in our lives? For me, the answer will always be a resounding “YES” as our hearts welcome anew the TRUE meaning of Christmas – of Baby Jesus being born into the world. Jesus who is Immanuel (“God-with-us”) brought HOPE into humankind’s lives once again – so you and I can now have the chance to live in Heaven eternally. It is our Saviour’s unconditional LOVE for us that He came down to earth that we will all be saved!

Some children  from our Divine Orphanage Homes. The little boy in blue has leukemia.

This year will be my 10th consecutive Christmas that I will celebrate in Divine Retreat Centre here in Kerala, India. It amazes me that I have been serving here for 9 ½ years now! All I can say is my love for the Divine-Potta mission always feels new. Jesus really gives all of us who serve here a great sense of HOPE that together, we can make a difference in the world for Christ! And it is not just for those of us who serve here – we have so many loving supporters of this mission all over India and the world – we are united by our love to proclaim Christ and to care for the marginalized and those most in need in this world. I always remember something I was told by our Director, Fr. Augustine Vallooran V.C., –“if our Divine ministry is growing, it is because we proclaim, live and bring the Love and Hope of Jesus to others. When we stop doing that, Susan, God will not give us any more challenges and our ministry will be stagnant and soon no more.” This conversation came about at the early stages of my ministry, as fresh from years in the corporate world, I would at times get nervous seeing all the numerous charitable and evangelization works the Vincentian Fathers in Divine Retreat Centre would take on courageously and without the slightest hint of worry or anxiety. We had no savings in the bank (a very large debt actually!) and no source of income!  Were they not afraid? What if we had to stop these new works because we could not raise the needed funds to run the charitable homes and the evangelization efforts long term - especially Divine TV, our 24-hour commercial-free Catholic Gospel Channel?

Fr. Joseph Edattu V.C (l), Fr. Augustine Vallooran V.C. (c) & Fr. Philip Nedumthuruthil V.C. (r)

I know I was very puzzled trying initially to logically grapple with whether these Fathers were just naive and had no concept of the amount of money needed for taking on incredible challenges. Yet, my heart was completely drawn by the great love and hope these Vincentian Fathers had in God’s Providence. “If God is asking us after much prayers to take up this challenge, He will provide.  I do not know how, none of us Fathers know, but we cannot go wrong if we do God’s Will. Remember Psalm 121 says. “I look to the mountains; where will my help come from? My help will come from the LORD, who made heaven and earth . (Psalm121:11-2)” I will never ever forget these words told to me by Fr. Augustine one night in 2006 when there seemed insurmountable obstacles to start Divine TV. 

All I know is that seeing the unshakeable faith and hope of Fr. Augustine who is even today, the “heart” and driving force of the Divine TV ministry, I learnt a HUGE lesson in my faith journey. When we live for Christ, we live with our heart not with our mind (our logic) for Jesus lives in our heart! I see these same great hope and faith with all the Vincentian Fathers here. Today, Divine TV is broadcast in UK, Europe, the Middle East, USA, Canada and India...it can be viewed on the Internet worldwide.  

Perhaps, it should then not surprise anyone who knows me that no ministry challenge that comes in prayer and discerned through prayers and spiritual direction has deterred me once I am convicted in my heart that it is a mission God has entrusted to me. Well. Jesus was a radical in His time. He did not just conform to what was always being done in the world – rather what His Father willed for Him to do! I have seen even in my own personal ministry how Jesus has never made me fail in any initiative once I took it up in faith. At times, it took me years but Our Lord always kept His Promise! I also know I never gave up for my heart was filled with hope that “Nothing is impossible for God.” (Luke 1:37) This Promise of the Word of God is always foremost in my heart. I have learnt never to look and find for the obstacles in doing a mission initiative and rejection from others (people we may count on or who look at things from a worldly perspective). When I feel called by God to do something for His Kingdom. I place my human hope into His Heart so that it is His Hope that now lives in me.

What does our world need from us? What Christmas means – the day Hope was born into our world! I would like to share a recent homily of Pope Francis on “HOPE”:

Speaking at morning Mass (29 October) at Casa Santa Marta, the Pope reflected on the words of St. Paul in which he says: 'Never disappoint yourself'- Hope never lets you down. Why? Said the Pope:“Because it's a gift from the Holy Spirit”. And he continued: Paul tells us that hope has a name. Hope is Christ.

Elaborating on the meaning of hope the Pope said that it creates a tension directed towards the revelation of Jesus Christ, towards true joy that is eternal life.

And referring to the virtues of faith, hope and charity, the Pope said that often the virtue of hope is seen as the most humble of the three, because – he said – it is hidden in life. You can see faith – he added – you can feel it, you know what it is. And charity too – we know what that is. But what is hope? What is this attitude of hope? First of all - he said - we can say it is a risk, a risky virtue – as Saint Paul says: it is a virtue of ardent expectation for the Revelation. "It is not an illusion".

And he continued: “Jesus, the hope, renews everything. So hope is a constant miracle. "The miracle of what He’s doing in the Church. The miracle of making everything new: of what He does in my life, in your life, in our life. He builds and He rebuilds. And that is precisely the reason of our hope". "Christ is the one who renews every wonderful thing of the Creation; He's the reason of our hope. And this hope does not delude because He is faithful. He can't renounce Himself. This is the virtue of hope.”

(Source: CNA News)

I thank Our Lord for allowing me to learn the truth of this message while serving here. With deepest gratitude, I thank God for my parents who instilled in me the seed of my Catholic faith. In their lives, I saw that their deep hope in Jesus was always fulfilled even in their most difficult and sorrowful times. Most of all, I see HOPE with a deep sense of joy and wonder so clearly in the lives of the 3000 members of our Divine Family who are lovingly cared for in the various Divine Homes of Love through Divine Charitable Trust and in our retreat centre.

At the top of this post is a YouTube pictorial video “DIVINE CHRISTMAS 2012 MEMORIES – CHRIST IS OUR HOPE” set to the joyful Don Moen Christmas song – “A Season of Hope”. May the joy you see on the faces of our Divine Family and of Divine’s Christmas Vigil Mass 2012 exemplify the Good News - CHRIST in our lives means HOPE lives in us forever!