Homelessness, refugees, political killings and Jesus Christ - EDITORIAL

The celebration of Christmas according to world population review.com occurs in 160 countries worldwide and celebrations vary by country. Some countries celebrate Christmas Day, on December 25, while others celebrate the day before or the day after.
It is a day Churches and shopping malls set up nativity scenes (cribs) depicting the birth of 
Jesus Christ. 
It is a celebratory moment in time. Newspapers and magazines are filled with advertisements of various Christmas sales and homes are gaily decorated and often include cribs in remembrance of the stable in which Christ was born.

Yes, Christmas is really a big festival for Christians; extended family dinner/lunch and family gatherings being part of the festivities. For the children, it is a very exciting time as they wait for the arrival of Santa Claus and the gifts he brings. 
Yet, amid the feel-good celebrations that occur on Christmas Day, we are in danger of forgetting that Christ himself was born a homeless kid with no place to lay his head –born in a manger (cattle shed)- no fine clothes like those we will have specially made to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ!

Within weeks of his birth, the ruler of his land ordered the Christ-child be put to death as it had been foretold he was born to be a king!
Not knowing who exactly Christ was, or where he lived, Herod the then Israeli king ordered all newborn male children in Bethlehem to be put to 
the sword. 
To fulfil the king’s order, soldiers fanned out through the land of Bethlehem snatching infants from the hands of their mother’s and chopping them to death. Large numbers of innocents were brutally slain by the King’s Israeli soldiers during that time.

Joseph, the Christ-child’s father, hearing of the slaughter, along with the child and his mother fled in the dead of night to Egypt. 
Christians commemorate the slaughter of the children on 29 December as Holy Innocents Day.
Today even as we celebrate, yet another Christmas, across the Middle East and North Africa, desperate people are fleeing their homes and lands. Though guns have largely fallen silent in most of the region’s conflict zones, much of the misery has not let up. 

The violence that once engulfed Syria, Libya, Yemen and Iraq -- have resulted in economic wreckage. In desperation, entire communities are attempting to seek refuge in Europe and the UK, making dangerous sea crossings in small boats. 
Just over a month ago, 85 people died in two separate incidents while trying to reach Italy from Libya. 

UN officials estimate that this year alone 1,600 people died in the Mediterranean Sea -the main gateway to Europe for refugees trying to enter the continent from the Middle East.
When fleeing to Egypt the child Jesus and his parents too would have faced dangerous attacks from brigands and other equally dangerous situations when on the way to seek refuge in Egypt. 
However, there was a single big difference, the Egyptian people and authorities looked with sympathy on fleeing families. They did not herd them into refugee camps or repatriate them back to the countries where they faced persecution 
and death.

Yes, Jesus whose birth we celebrated on 25 December was born homeless. He faced political persecution and would have been killed had he been discovered. Jesus and his family were forced to seek refuge in Egypt. So Jesus was also a refugee.
Thirty-three years later Jewish religious leaders would capture the same Jesus Christ, make false charges of sedition against him and force the Roman ruler to order his crucifixion via nailing him on a cross.

Indeed in addition to being born homeless, Jesus was a refugee fleeing certain death at the hands of a local puppet ruler and the end of his worldly life was tortured and executed –a victim of religious persecution. However, he overcame these injustices in his resurrection.
Christmas is therefore not simply a time for partying, dancing; shopping and finely decorated homes -it reminds us of human suffering, social injustice and the need to standby and stand up for the victims of social injustice. In Christmas we celebrate the victory over injustice. 
Christ himself born homeless, a refugee and executed -a victim of religious-political intrigue- conquered even death in his resurrection.