Maana ya Krismasi Inavyopotoshwa

Kimsingi, Krismasi ni siku ambayo sisi wa-Kristu tunakumbuka kwa namna ya pekee kuzaliwa kwa Yesu. Au labda niseme, ni siku ambayo wa-Kristu tunategemewa kukumbuka kwa namna ya pekee kuzaliwa kwa Yesu. Ni siku muhimu katika dini yetu, nasi tunategemewa kuwa tumejiandaa kiroho kwa kumpokea Yesu. Ni siku ambapo tunakumbushwa kuhusu utukufu wa Mungu, uokovu wetu, na amani duniani.

Wanataaluma tuna mazoea ya kutafiti mambo, na tunajua kuwa Krismasi ina historia ndefu, na sio vipengele vyake vyote vinatokana au kuhusiana na dini ya u-Kristu. Lakini ninachozingatia hapa ni kuwa, pamoja na hiyo historia ndefu, Krismasi kama tunavyoijua leo, ni siku takatifu, ya kukumbuka kuzaliwa kwa Yesu, siku ambayo wa-Kristu tunapaswa kuizingatia kwa misingi hiyo.

Lakini, kwa hali ilivyo, mtazamo huu wa kuiona Krismasi kama siku takatifu unazidi kupungua, na wengi wameshasau jambo hilo. Badala yake, maana ya Krismasi inapotoshwa. Badala ya kuzingatia kuwa maandalizi ya Krismasi ni ya kiroho, watu tunajiandaa kwa mambo ya kidunia.

Tunawazia kununua vitu kama vile nguo, viatu, na zawadi mbali mbali. Wafanyabiashara wanangojea kwa hamu kuuza bidhaa zao. Tunaingojea Krismasi kwa hamu ili tukasherehekee, na tunasherehekea hata kwa namna ambazo zinakiuka mafundisho ya dini.

Kila Krismasi, nalikumbuka shairi la Lawrence Ferlinghetti, liitwalo "Christ Climbed Down," ambalo nimelifahamu tangu mwaka 1991. Ni shairi ambalo linatufanya tuutafakari upotoshaji wa Krismasi:


Christ Climbed Down

Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree
this year
and ran away to where
there were no rootless
Christmas trees
hung with candycanes and
breakable stars

Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree
this year
and ran away to where
there were no gilded Christmas
trees
and no tinsel Christmas trees
and no tinfoil Christmas trees
and no pink plastic Christmas
trees
and no gold Christmas trees
and no black Christmas trees
and no powderblue Christmas trees
hung with electric candles
and encircled by tin electric
trains
and clever cornball relatives

Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree
this year
and ran away to where
no intrepid Bible salesmen
covered the territory
in two-tone cadillacs
and where no Sears Roebuck
creches
complete with plastic babe in
manger arrived by parcel post
the babe by special delivery
and where no televised Wise
Men
praised the Lord Calvert
Whiskey

Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree
this year and ran away to where
no fat handshaking stranger
in a red flannel suit
and a fake white beard
went around passing himself
off as some sort of North Pole
saint
crossing the desert to
Bethlehem
Pennsylvania
in a Volkswagen sled
drawn by rollicking Adirondack
reindeer
and German names
and bearing sacks of Humble
Gifts from Saks Fifth Avenue
for everybody’s imagined Christ
child

Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree
this year
and ran away to where
no Bing Crosby carollers
groaned of a tight Christmas
and where no Radio City
angels
iceskated wingless
thru a winter wonderland
into a jinglebell heaven
daily at 8:30
with Midnight Mass matinees

Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree
this year
and softly stole away into
some anonymous Mary’s womb
again
where in the darkest night
of everybody’s anonymous soul
He awaits again
an unimaginable
and impossibly
Immaculate Reconception
the very craziest of
Second Comings

Copyright 1958 by Lawrence Ferlinghetti