On this Silent Night

The parishioners have gone home after drinking hot tea at the Parish Hall. We had our Christmas Eve mass at 7::30 pm. Early? It should be. Japan does not observe any Christmas holiday even if the decorations and Christmas lights have multiplied through the years. If Christmas happens to fall on a weekday, it IS a workday. Luckily, this year, our Christmas Eve mass falls on a Saturday and there were more people (and kids!) this time. There’s also another mass (to be attended by young adults) at 12 MN. Anyway, our 7:30 pm mass is for those who still have to go home by train or bus. Buses here stop operating by 11:00 pm. Trains, at 12:30 am. So those who will be attending the Midnight Mass either have cars or are just planning to hang out at the pubs after that and drink their guts out till the morning! (Talk about deviating from the REAL Christmas message!)

It’s 9:40 pm here in Kamakura. And the church building is eerily silent. No one is left. I am the only one here in the first floor making this blog entry and will later finish printing and writing messages on the New Year Cards (nenga-hagaki) that have to be dropped at the post office tomorrow. As the years go by, they keep getting more and more. And it is bad manners not to send back the next year.

If before, I bought cards from photo shops that already had prints on them, lately, I prefer to make my own design. My favorite was 2 years ago wherein I put my ordination picture to tell them that at the closing of 2009 that I just turned 10 years old as a priest. This year, I opted to put a painting of our Blessed Mother to tell those whom I am sending these cards that the year actually begins with the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. Yes, just a little way of “evangelizing” (or “re-evangelizing” for the Catholics) through the usual Japanese traditional way.

Christmas is quiet over here in Japan. And I love it!

It makes me more focused on the very meaning why we have Christmas at all. It makes me not care if I receive presents or not. It makes me savor the little but thoughtful greetings whether in person, by text message, by e-mail, Christmas card or even through Facebook. It makes me pray.

I thank the Holy Spirit for that one great thing He taught me as I prepared my homily for the Christmas Eve mass tonight:

* that I am very sure there is something great and wonderful in this world because the

Lord preferred to be born in this world,

* that I am very sure there is something great and wonderful in our families (no matter how

enormous their imperfections are!) because Jesus preferred to be born in a family,

* that there is something great and wonderful in myself (an imperfect, weak and sinful

human being) because Jesus became a human being like me.

If only I come to discover and truly live that great and wonderful thing in me, it would surely make me become a person of good will... and peace will surely be in me.

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Photo taken from: http://www.templeofthepresence.org/mary.htm