Christmas

Today Christ was born, and with Him were born gentleness, magnanimity, guidance, and faithfulness. He was born in a manger — poor, and in His poverty all riches; a little child, and in His littleness all strength. Born today is He who said, "Love your enemies and bless those who curse you"; who said, "If your brother wrongs you, forgive him"; and who raised the law of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth to the law of "whosoever strikes you on your right cheek, turn to him the left."

Today is the feast of purity and of the clean heart. The feast of the man in office who has never once trifled away anyone's right. The feast of the just judge, the honest official, the honorable poor man, the man of living conscience, the man who is above lying and cheating. The feast of him who defends his dignity, of the good citizen, of the religious man — not the fanatic — of the pure in heart and the clean of hand.

Christ was not born for those of rotten consciences and rancorous hearts, nor for the possessors of arrogant wealth and stopped-up ears. He was not born for the briber and the bribed, the liar and the corrupt. Nor is today's feast for the egoist who sees in the mirror of the world nothing but his own face and his own interests, nor for him who plays the lion before his subordinate and bows his head before his superior. Nor is it the feast of cunning, of hypocrisy, of elastic consciences...

Can you be proud of every stand you have taken? Does the voice of the widows and orphans you have wronged ring in your ears? Does the gold you gathered from the blood of others glitter before your eyes? Do you hear the moaning of the man you condemned unjustly? Do you see virtue gaunt and feeble because of your slackness, and vice strong and vigorous because of your backing and support?

Are you among those to whom the feast belongs? Strip the mask from yourself and whisper the answer in your own ear. The adornments of the feast are counterfeited by a darkened man if the light of your spirit is not reflected upon them.

Christmas is a single day; but every day is the feast of the living conscience, of honor, of the wide and loving heart. These are not divided by religions or barriers or governments.

We in the Arab East have not learned how to live as communities. Many individuals among us are distinguished by high culture and broad learning. Yet whenever we come together, we find the whole falling far short of distinction. For our individualism, our ambitions, our personal interests, and our pretension are all a weight dragging us downward. I have come to hate the resounding words we hear daily: integrity, disinterestedness, self-sacrifice, patriotism, and so on... I have hated them as words that people in this East of ours sing — while nearly everyone, were it not for the existence of a very small number of people of character, nearly everyone is ignorant of their meaning and fights against them.

Enough of pretension. In place of the self-confidence that spurs one toward mastery and the striving for perfection, we take up a pretension that makes us content with what we are. We have drifted far from the spirit of religion, though we hear the world daily saying that our lands are the cradle of revelation and of the religions. We have drifted from the spirit, and have taken to arming ourselves in the name of religion, banding together confessionally and growing fanatical so as to make a show of strength and power. We do wrong to the religions, all of which preach love, peace, and goodness. Let us act by their teachings, and listen to Christ saying, "Whosoever does good is my brother," and to the Arab Prophet saying, "You are all God's dependents."