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Friday, December 26, 2003
Editorial: Charity at Christmas
BUT what really is the so-called spirit of Christmas?
If it's Love, why, it's all over the world and present year-round. If it's Hope, many, especially the less fortunate and ambitious, have much of it because it's all they were born with - just watch the multitude who buy lotto or stupidly fall for pyramid scams or achingly die for a chance to join Laban O Bawi on television and the hundreds, nay thousand others at home or in the studio who shriek and scream for a contestant they are totally unrelated with to get the jackpot and physically rejoice with him if he does get lucky.
And if it's Charity? Well, for every handful who gives, there are a hundred who would just gladly receive. Now, to which side do we belong? One can love without being charitable, so we all must have discovered at one time or the other in our temporal existence. We love to receive gifts, we don't bother giving any. We love our self too much, we don't give a part of it to others. We love the smell (and color) of money but we can't spare a little for the famished orphans.
Charity is a commodity the world has less of, no matter the rise of organizations and foundations that purport to stand for those in need of help, no matter the abundant presence of government agencies and offices mandated to do social welfare work. Because charity consists not of the material goods and gifts we give (which anyway are those things we have already used or overused), nor the food and fare we feed people with but the care we give to our family, friends and offices or associations when they need it most. It is given year-round not just on Christmas Day but on 24-hour basis, without days or months off, hell or high water, good times and bad, in sickness and in health, bonus or no bonus and GMA or FPJ.
In short, our simple treatise is, Christmas as a time of charity should not end with the flash of a camera and the publication of our "noble charity works." It should be purposively seen through to its meaningful end and thereafter recognized from the warm smile in a cured child's face or in the faint but unmistakable twinkle in a stranger's thankful eyes.
(December 25, 2003 issue)
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