M E S S A G E
"THIS VERY DAY ... YOUR SAVIOR WAS BORN"
Luke 2:41-52; Colossians 3:12-17

            I am glad to have been given this opportunity to share this message and be a part of this year's San Esteban Town Fiesta celebration, a celebration that is so meaningful and an affair to remember; not only that the celebration gives all the peoples of San Esteban here in our Municipality but a chace for all San Estebanians scattered all over the world a chance to feel and expresses belongingness to our beloved town. Our Town Fiesta celebration falls at a time when the whole of Christendom celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ - Christmas time. May I therefore concentrate my thoughts on the message of Christmas.

            To start with let me say that Christmas Day is Jesus' birthday. We, Christians of San Esteban, belonging to different religious affiliations who believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, and other Christians all over the world celebrate this day with the announcement that came to the shepherds through an Angel of the Lord appearing to them by night saying: "Don't be afraid! I am here with good news for you which will bring great joy to all the people. This very day in David's town your Savior was born - Christ the Lord!" (Luke 2:9-10). From that on, the message of the birth of Jesus Christ is celebrated in commemoration of his coming to earth in the flesh. Today, the relevance of our celebration of Christmas, is that, not only, we do celebrate the birth of Jesus in a lowly manger, but more so today, we celebrate Jesus' birth every time a man or a woman receives Jesus Christ in his/her heart, as Savior and Lord. To the man and woman who receives Jesus in his/her heart, the Savior is born. This is a time when the individual becomes a Christian. Friends, what happens when Jesus Christ is born in the heart of a man or a woman - you and me? Let us consider and ponder more closely on the following:

            First. The individual becomes a Christian - born again. When a man or a woman receives Christ in his/her heart, he/she becomes a Christian. The individual is spiritually born again. As one individual becomes a Christian or is born again, there ought to be a complete change in his or her personality. He/she puts off his/her old self, and puts on a new self. This is symbolized in baptism. The candidate in the act of baptism puts off his/her old clothes and then puts on a new white garment. We very often evade the truth on which the New Testament insists on us; the truth, that our Christianity when it does not at all change us, is a most imperfect Christianity on our part. Further, this change is a progressive change. This new creation in us is a continual renewal. It makes us grow continually in our Christianity. Our Christianity is not really Christianity unless it recreates us into a new person and this is seen and proven in the way we act, think and speak.

            Second. One of the great effects of our Christianity, is that, it destroys the barriers which divide and separates. In it there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free man. The ancient world was full of barriers. The Greeks looked down on the barbarians; and to the Greek any man who did not speak Greek was a barbarian. The Greek was the aristocrat of the ancient world and he knew it. The Jew looked down on every other nation for a Jew then thinks and believes that he belonged to God's chosen people, and the other nations were fit only to become fuel for the fires of hell. The Scythians were notorious as the lowest of the barbarians, more barbaric than the barbarians. The Greeks called the Scythians a little short of being a wild beast. The Scythians therefore is the savage, who terrorized the civilized world with his bestial atrocities. The slave was not even classified in ancient law as a human being; he was merely a human and a living tool, with no rights of his own at all. His master could thrash or brand or maim or even kill him at his own caprice. The slave had not even the right of marriage. There could be no fellowship in the ancient world between a slave and a free man. According to Biblical times, this was the picture of the ancient world. Do we see these divisions and prejudices still existent today among nations, the black and the white, the learned and unlearned, rich and the poor, civilized and the terrorist, strong and the weak, etc.? And do we still see divisions and prejudices among the many religious groups of today - religious leaders and church members?.

            Friends, in Christ all of these barriers were broken and torn down in the life of any man who is spiritually born again. Our Christianity therefore, has shown, effected and changed the word "barbarian" to a "brother/sister." The Christ Jesus who is born in you and me did it. Different nations, who either despised or hated each other, were all drawn into the one family of the Christian Church. Nations which have leaped at each other's throat in battle sat in peace and negotiating tables beside each other and we pray that nations today continue to do so. And how about us so called Christians of differing Church affiliations, can we eat joyfully as one - a brother and a sister - at the Table of the Lord? Can the cultured and the uncultured, scholar and the simplest farmer come and sit together in perfect fellowship in the Church of Christ?

            Third and finally. Our Christianity enables us to put on the garments as desired. The Apostle Paul made a list of the garments and/or clothes that the Colossian Christians must put on themselves. And the challenge is for us also, peoples of San Esteban - public officials and the rest of the citizenry - to show that we have these virtues as garments to govern our own lives and relationships with each one. It is most significant to note that every one of the virtues listed has to do with personal relationships between person to person. There is no mention of virtues like efficiency, cleverness, diligence, industry, etc. - not that these things are not important. No! These other virtues are important. But to Paul, the great basic Christian virtues are the virtues which we govern and set the tone of human relationships. For to Paul, Christianity is a community. Christianity has on its divine side, that is, the amazing gift of peace and God; and on its human side, the triumphant solution of the problem of living together. This living together brings about the following needed virtues:

            There is a heart of pity. If there was one thing that the ancient world needed most, it was mercy. The sufferings of the animals were nothing to the ancient world. There was no provision for the aged. The treatment of idiots and sickly were unfeeling and inhuman. It was Christianity who brought, and still is bringing, into this world the increasing virtue of mercy.

            There is kindness. This is a virtue of a man whose neighbor's good is as dear and important to him as his very own.

            There is humility. As a creature, man in the presence of God cannot feel anything else but to be humble. This is the opposite of pride. With the virtue of humility in our relation with the other man, we believe that all other men are the sons/children of God, hence, there is no room for arrogance and dislike for the other man when we are living among men and women, who, we believe, are all of royal lineage - as children of God.

            There is gentleness. This is the man who has self-control, because he is God-controlled. Gentleness is always being angry at the right time, and never angry at the wrong time. This virtue has at one and the same time the strength and the sweetness of true gentleness.

            There is patience. This is the spirit which never loses its patience with its fellow-men. Other's foolishness, unteachability, insults, and ill-treatment never drive a patient man to bitterness, curse or wrath. Let the virtue of human patience be seen in us for it is a reflection of the divine patience which bears with us in all our sinning and which never casts us off; God's disciplining, however, is a part of what patience is. God would try us His children sometimes, as a father would punish his children in order to show discipline; hence, our sufferings, too, are a way for God to make us more refined and stronger.

            There is the forbearing and the forgiving spirit. The Christian forbears and forgives; and he does so, because he never forgets that a forgiven man must always be forgiving. As God forgave us when we go to Him in confession, and as we are forgiven by God so we must also forgive others, for only the forgiving individual can be forgiven.

            Finally, to the garments of the virtues and the graces mentioned, Paul adds one more - this is what he calls the perfect bond of love. Love is the binding power which holds the whole Christian body together. The tendency of any body of people is sooner or later to fly apart and so there is hatred, jealousy, tsismis here and there; but, love is the one bond which will hold and cement us all together in unbreakable fellowship. This is the bond that will hold us all San Estebanians carry us through over rough and rugged roads in our relationships.

            Our true Christianity, as beautiful peoples of San Esteban, here and abroad, remind us that in our period of celebration - Town Fiesta and Christmas, let us not forget to express with gratefulness that Jesus Christ had come. It is a very good news for all and it gives us San Estebanians a great reason to celebrate and have feast together. Let great joy in us be made manifest not only during our Town Fiesta and Christmas, but in all days of our lives for Jesus Christ had come to save us and changed us and had made as one. Let us join and have Feast together in the presence of God, and in our celebration let the spirit of oneness prevail, social and religious distinctions become irrelevant; and in our dealings and relationships together let it be seen in us all the heart of pity, virtue of kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forbearing and forgiving spirit, and above all the perfect bond of love. Thank you and God bless us all...