I’ve never been a fan of the holiday season. This is due to its conspicuously consumerist aspects and to some religious incompatibilities. However, in the past, I have participated in some celebrations and/or joined the choirs of good wishes as an act of respect for those who resonate with this tradition.
Well, this year, as a sign of deference, I will radically ignore Christmas. I have chosen to explicitly abstain from this feast, in all its aspects, including the most obvious one, which is the celebration of the birth of Jesus.
I believe that to have the dignity of celebrating the birth of Jesus, however one understands it, it is imperative to be in harmony with his teachings or at least aspire as much as possible to do so. Jesus’ message was based on love and unconditional peace, to the extreme of “if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also to him” (Matthew 5:39). With this I agree. The problem is that the countries who celebrate the birth of Jesus are historically the most aggressive and belligerent on the entire planet, to an ever-increasing degree. This is something I can no longer reconcile. I do not accept that the spiritual charisma of Jesus is exploited to promote societies explicitly based on materialism, violence and every possible perversion of his original message.
Never before in my life have I noticed such an extreme prevalence of warmongers and hypocrites in the world that celebrates Christmas. In the country where I now live, a Catholic place par excellence, they even make up 100% of the political forces represented in Parliament, which meet, among other things, a few hundred meters from the Vatican. As a conscientious objector, I have always refused to comply with any duty imposed by the legal system aimed at the production and use of weapons. I abhor war of any kind, and especially the roguish idea that you can fight a war in the name of peace. Not to mention other national issues of superlative hypocrisy relating to the health problems of recent years.
Of course, hypocrisy has always existed since the beginning of time. But where the hypocrites of the past at least deigned to carry out their criminal deeds in secrecy, the contemporary ones do it openly in front of everyone’s eyes, even managing to receive public approval.
I don’t celebrate Christmas because I live in a country and in a European community that celebrates this event, despite being in obvious antagonism with the related message. While I disagree with the policy of these countries, declaring that their decisions are contrary to my will, I cannot however prevent them from using my contributions to finance their actions. In this respect, I have no excuse or moral superiority. I am an accomplice. In these wretched policies I recognize in some ways some of my contradictions, the inconsistency that often transpires between my principles and my actions. But there is a limit to the incongruity I can tolerate for myself. It shines through when I access the religious and spiritual sphere. This year, after what I have witnessed in the country where I live as of 2020, my abstention from Christmas can only be radical. Nonetheless, my sympathy remains for those in families or among friends who gather these days with a clear resolution of peace and love. I will do this, but having nothing to do with the Western Christmas of politicians, mass media and ordinary Christianity.
So I greet you brightly, wishing you much Peace and Love, as well as the ability to be compassionate towards those who are prey to ignorance and hypocrisy. I recognize that they represent separate parts existing within me and in each of us, otherwise I would not perceive them. Hence, the powerful wish to identify these parts, acquiring the ability to free ourselves forever from the nightmare from which they emerged, with God’s help.
There is also a more properly theological reason why I don’t celebrate Christmas. It lies in the fact that I have never been able to digest the dogma that Jesus is God incarnate, despite the enormous efforts to believe it. This dogma was decided at the table in 325 AD. in Bithynia (Turkey) at the residence of Emperor Constantine I and by his supreme will. Prior to that date, it was commonly believed that Jesus was a man, albeit a highly enlightened being or a prophet. However, things changed drastically in 325 AD. when the first of a long line of dogmas was instituted by the “Catholic Church”. From then on anyone who allowed themselves to deny or even doubt that Jesus was God automatically became a heretic, which involved devastating torture and in most cases being burned at the stake.
So I really don’t feel like celebrating what according to this dogma represents the birth of God, which for centuries people have been forced to believe, because such cruelty towards unbelievers is in total contrast to the teachings of Jesus, both in its divine and human versions.
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