Message from poor boy two Christmases ago
I wonder how we could catch on the message of a baby Jesus who was born in a stable. I wonder if he were physically walking with us now, would he be able to buy something for an exchange gift during Christmas?
This thought reminded me of an experience I had in a public school two years ago. The boy was so skinny, it was only his belt that held his visibly much-used short pants from dropping. In fact, his shorts and shirt looked too large for him that his uniform seemed to swallow him. His eyes were pinned on the bags of gifts the Promotion of Church People’s Response had prepared as if he was afraid they would disappear the moment he took his eyes off them.
When the time came to distribute the gifts, the little boy shyly but happily received his share—a gift bag and a packed lunch. He slowly opened the bag and stole a look on what was inside. Then he carefully placed the packed lunch inside the bag and quietly stayed put in his chair. I approached him, touched his back but so softly because he seemed so fragile. I engaged him in Tagalog, “Are you not going to eat your lunch?” His tiny reply made a very powerful and heartwarming message: “I’m bringing this to my brothers and sisters and my mother. We will eat this together.”
Acts of sharing and giving love are not something young children in our poor
communities talk about. These things the children just do, without much fuss. They can always sacrifice without feeling like heroes. Some would eat their lunch because they came to school without breakfast. Others would save a portion to give as “pasalubong” for their siblings.
The teachers who had first-hand knowledge about the children’s predicaments told us that the children they had chosen to receive our gifts were the poorest among their pupils in Tondo. Most of them were scavengers, street vendors, and from homeless families.
I thought then, if Jesus, the one whose birth we were celebrating, were in our midst, maybe He would be one of those children lining up for the Christmas gift and lunch. I thought He would also share whatever He’d get from His parents—Mary and Joseph.
But in the holiday rush, amid the pushing and shoving in malls and grocery stores and the endless greetings of “Merry Christmas,” is the reality that we still live in a world of distress and misery brought about by an unjust economic order and by environmental plunder by a market-driven economy, and by violations of economic, political and civil rights.
The living testimony of children who naturally, unselfishly share the gifts they receive lights our hearts with a glimmer of hope—that while the dominant capitalist economic system contradicts the values children show, the radical generosity of the poor will herald the great good news of justice for and redemption of a broken world.
—NORMA P. DOLLAGA,
Kapatirang Simbahan Para sa Bayan,
