TODAY is Christmas Eve — the day before Christmas. On this day, we make our final preparations for the celebration of that special day. Because it is Sunday, many of us would also be going to church. In this season of celebration, of merriment and feasting, we remember and celebrate the best in our human tradition.

We come together not just as Christians, but as humanity. It is a living testimony to our complexity that a religious observance could galvanise the universal recognition which Christmas does. The birth of Jesus is truly a commanding phenomenon that has survived the ages and has transcended our insularity and fragmentation.

This Christmas we urge serious reflection as a nation on the state of our society and how we can use the spirit of the season to better navigate the challenges in our society. We know only too well of our failings to live up to the Christmas creed, once the Christmas moment recedes into our memories. The indiscipline in all areas of our national life is known to us—the carnage on our roads, the wanton killings, the daily robberies, the disrespect for rules and laws and the unchecked materialism are but a few of the ills that impair our ability to see beyond our narrow confines.

But perhaps more than anything other failing, it is the disregard for the least among us that must concern us this Christmas season. Most of us would be sharing gifts and making merry as families and communities. But there are many in our midst whose Christmas is not as bright and merry as the rest of us—the poor and the powerless. They are the ones without the financial capacity to buy gifts and prepare sumptuous meals and attend expensive Christmas functions. True, some of us would reach out to these less fortunate souls and share our bread with them. But we must do more than that.

There is something wrong about a world that celebrates the goodwill of Christmas, but pretends that all is well in the larger society. Poverty is not the fault of its victims—it’s a man-made phenomenon that is derived from deliberate social policies. Therefore, it takes policy interventions to turn back poverty. But mankind must have the spiritual capacity to want to confront this scourge.

What better time to recommit to doing something about poverty and the conditions in which it is nurtured than at this Christmas time?  The birth of Jesus is pregnant with the symbolism of progressive thinking and the plight of the least among us. Jesus was born at a time of anguish and pessimism. His birth was heralded as a new beginning for a world that was aimlessly drifting. The Christian teachings tell us that he came to save the world—Christ the Saviour is born.

That he was born to poor parents is no accident. That very fact must always point us to the plight of the poor—that poverty is at the centre of the Christmas narrative. It is why at this time we urge that our prayers be directed in defence of the poor and towards a commitment to do something tangible to slacken its stranglehold on our society. We should not make merry at Christmas without due recognition to the disquieting prevalence of poverty in our midst.