Christmas 2010 will preside over a network of national and global issues of which we need to take cognisance.The Mumbai Massacre stands out in India. On that side of the globe, there is the continuous conflagrations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other parts of the Middle East. The irony of the conflicts in the Middle East is that Jesus Christ, whose birthday is celebrated on Christmas Day, was born in that region, and he has carried the nomenclature, The Prince of Peace. Closer home is the economic meltdown, which has its genesis in the United States, and its impactful repercussions in Europe, Asia, Latin/South America, Canada, the Caribbean, among other nations.
We in T&T have our own war which is now leading to genocide.
A nation is at war with itself. There seems to be no end in sight. In fact, it escalates beyond one's comprehension...murders, kidnappings, burglaries, violence and pornography in our school system, corruption, blue collar crime, white collar crime, deceit, deception, dishonesty, lack of integrity among the total populace, management of the society, governance, the list continues. We have spent billions of dollars annually to save the face of the nation on the crime account, but it persists with no end in sight. Is there hope for T&T with the election of the People's Partnership Government?
What does the message of Christmas 2010 impart on the populace? Would Christmas 2010 inspire a new dynamic, a new paradigm, a new philosophy, a new direction to forge a concept and state of peace, respect, brotherly love, concord, harmony and understanding among us all? We as sober men and women will have to ignite a different message and different media to trumpet it across the land. Too many young lives are lost. There is more blood on the streets, than the water WASA can inject in its national water grid. There must be another way out. There must be a diligent search to recoup respect, law and order in our society. It must not only come from our religious leaders and moral thinkers and spiritual leaders.
It seems that some of them are caught in the same web from which we are trying to get escape.But we have to embark on serious search...a search that would engineer a new thinking, perhaps cloning of a new human being.Maybe, that is where T&T can play its role in the science for the 21st century and beyond. At the sociological plateau, we have to get serious about the deteriorating environment of not only crime, but the total social, ethical, moral and spiritual decadence, which have not only hit our society, but has engulfed the entire planetary cosmos.
Going to church, or mandir, or mosque, or any other place of worship, even in the home, does not necessarily mean that one has communicated with his God-call Him, Jesus, Krishna or Allah. We need to inculcate and practice true worship.Warren W Wiersbe writes in his masterpiece book, Real Worship: "There is an undue familiarity with God that only proves that the worshipper does not really know God at all.
True worship must always involve mystery. There are many things we cannot explain but that we can experience. Mystery and humility go together, and there can be no real worship without humility. God reveals Himself, but He rarely explains Himself."This is where we can take up the cue for Christmas 2010 and move onwards to the aura of self-realisation or moksha.
All religions promise that ultimate destination. The roads are varied...there are several avenues that can take one up to the zenith of the mountain, and on arrival there is the one universal view.
"Religion is that which binds a man," writes G Campbell Morgan in his book, The Westminster Pulpit. He continued: "Every man is bound somewhere, somehow to a throne, to a government, to an authority, to something that is Supreme, to something to which he offers sacrifice, and burns incense and the bends the knee."There is a mass call for universal peace, international understanding, goodwill and harmony. Let us use Christmas 2010 as the mirror to create or to recreate this model.
Not too much time is on our side, or there will be total anarchy, chaos and decadence.Dr Albert Schweitzer, noted thinker, humanitarian, Nobel Laureate, and author of 16 books on various disciplines, writes in his masterpiece: The Decay and Restoration of Civilisation: "Civilisation originates when men become inspired by a strong and clear determination to attain progress and consecrate themselves, as a result of this determination, to the service of life and of the world."It is only in ethics that we can find the driving force action, transcending, as it does, the limits of our own existence. Nothing of real value in the world is every accomplished without enthusiasm and self-sacrifice."Let us be guided by this mantra for Christmas 2010.Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.