OPINION:
For only the fifth time in the last 125 years, Christmas and the first night of Hannukah coincide. It’s a wonderful occasion that has special meaning in this time of rising attacks on both Christians and Jews. For Christians, solidarity with those St. Pope John Paul II called “our older brothers in faith” has never been more important with war in Israel, a resurgence of antisemitism and the rise of militant secularism.
This holiday season is always a special and spiritual time filled with sights, sounds and memories that warm the soul. There is much to be learned from this year’s convergence of celebrating two significant events in biblical history.
The fight of Judah Maccabee and the Jews against the Greeks is analogous to our struggle domestically against secular forces that seek to diminish the presence of God’s truth in our society. More than 150 years before the birth of Christ, Hellenistic cultural influence and imperial oppression were erasing Judaism from society. The ruling Seleucid government banned many Jewish practices. Jews feared being exposed to their faith and made outcasts in society.
The greatest of all assaults came in the form of the Second Temple in Jerusalem being turned into a pagan shrine.
Judah Maccabee saw God’s chosen people being erased from the earth and staged a rebellion that, against all odds, triumphed over fads, fear and persecution. God looked with favor on the recapture and rededication of the temple through the miracle of the menorah, which burned for eight days when it had enough oil for only one.
Judah Maccabee would die in battle against the Greeks, but the struggle to protect Jews from oppression has now spanned millennia. The lights of Hannukah are a reminder that faith continues to be challenged by evil and ignorance. It requires us not to just to bask in the light of truth but to spread it to others and be prepared to fight to defend it.
And so we come to the story of the child, born to a young woman who had the extraordinary courage to say yes to God’s petition that she bring his son into the world. The lights and the sacrifices of the temple would be given new form in the light of Christ and his sacrifice for humanity.
The “light of the world,” raised as a devout Jew, would grow from those first moments in the cave, lying in a manger, to see him seek to expand God’s chosen people to the four corners of creation. This child would at once herald a struggle against humanity and proclaim a road map for the human race to become one with God.
Like the miraculous temple lamp before him, Christ is a beacon of hope for those who believe we can be better than we are. That we can move on from this earthly home to a higher plane of being, united with the God of Abraham.
The story of Christ doesn’t begin with the baby in the manger. It is a key part of a continuum along the annals of history, set in place by God from the beginning to bring humanity closer to himself. Judah Maccabee knew saving the children of Israel would be a struggle. Christ was then born to suffer for the sins of humanity.
As Bishop Robert Barron recently wrote of Christ, he came “as a helpless infant … in a small town of distant outpost of the Roman Empire … [to] conquer through the finally irresistible power of love, the same power with which he made the universe.”
Today, the miracle of the temple lamp and the enduring presence of the “light of the world” remind us that we can be truly illuminated, but it will take faith, courage and wisdom. Both of these gifts we celebrate in this holy season should serve to bring us closer together so that we can face the challenge of living in a manner worthy of God’s reward.
• Tom Basile is the host of “America Right Now” on Newsmax TV and a columnist with The Washington Times.
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