of man — prove by this faith of theirs the possibility of miracles occurring in history and working upon it.
5 — Dr. Jamal Karam Harfush: physician.
What does Christmas inspire? And what does it not inspire? It is a speaking image of the joining of heaven and earth — and that joining is what the earth needs now; if it strays far from it, it will find it hard to solve the many problems in which it flounders.
Christmas, as I see it, founded a new social philosophy for which the world order is now working. This social philosophy shows itself in the institutions of child care and child welfare. Had Christ not come into the world as a child, strengthening the idea of childhood and its standing, men would not have thought of childhood and its importance.
And Christmas strengthened the position of woman. Christmas, in Christianity, gave woman a standing no other society has offered her — it gave her the holiest of favors and the strongest of respect — it made her the Mother of God!
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We have a whole year in which we think of ourselves and of what we need... Christmas is the one day of the year on which we leave ourselves, and the thought of ourselves, to think of others. It is the feast of giving — the feast of the joy that floods us when we give to others and ask nothing that others should give us.
It is the feast of merry childhood opening its boxes of presents in the morning. It is a precious memory renewed, year after year: the birth of a child... the birth of a hope... the birth of a rescuer and savior.
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Christmas reminds me of a day of peace, in a world that never quiets down and never knows peace. What it inspires in me is an oasis to which the weary world takes refuge one day each year, in the desert of pains and hopes and tears, to enjoy its shade and savor its quiet for a few moments — only to return to the combat and the struggle more fiercely than it began them,