Preliminary Reflection
Christmas carries a deep theological and existential meaning: a reminder to focus on what truly matters in our lives and society. Around the globe, people celebrate this holiday in many ways—reuniting with family, catching up with friends, attending parties and music festivals, or participating in church events. While these traditions are meaningful, there’s also a deeper social significance. Reflecting on the theological message of Christmas highlights the important role human perception and attention play in everyday life.
Humans depend on their senses to navigate daily life and understand the world around them. Perception is a core part of human experience, helping us make sense of our surroundings through seeing, hearing, and touch, which are woven into everyday life. Our ability to speak, see, and hear reflects the nature of our consciousness, through which we engage with the world and communicate. Based on this understanding, I view the Christmas season as a time for social reorientation—a chance to realign our perception and attention within the social space. It’s an opportunity to reflect on what captures our attention in daily life and consider whether those things truly deserve it.
Against this backdrop, this piece is about a reflection on the story about the birth of Jesus, more specifically the story of his birth in a manger, which then serves as the object and starting point of reflection for the theme in question.
Theology of Manger – “You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” (Lk 2:12).
According to the story, Mary and Joseph travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem to take part in the census decreed by Caesar Augustus. The pregnancy of Mary was due and according to the story “there was no place for them in the inn”. As a result, Mary had to give birth to his son in a manger,a feeding trough for animals. The manger is not an ideal place or setting for child birth. At this point, one may ask: Wasn’t there any available place apart from the manger or feeding trough for animals? Here the likely response to this question lies in the statement: “There was no place for them in the inn (private home) – Lk 2:7”. Inherent in this statement is the possibility of Mary and Joseph being turned down by people in their quest to look for a befitting place to welcome their child into the world. Herein lies the social logic of Christmas: A pregnant mother and her vulnerable baby who needed urgent or serious attention received none. This could well be that the private home or guest room was occupied because of the crowd that travelled to Bethlehem for the census. Granted, that may be the case, but it still doesn’t change the fact that the people staying in the inn or guest room were probably focused on something other than making room for the vulnerable pregnant mother in labor. The question is: What could the people in the inn or guest room have been thinking to overlook the need to make space for a pregnant woman in excruciating pain? This really feels like an issue of perception and attention!
Now in a symbolic language, the birth of Jesus in a manger points to the paradox or contradiction of social experience: sometimes societies focus on or pay attention to things that require little or no attention and neglect those that need the utmost attention and swift action. That is, some societies knowingly or unknowingly provide enough space for things that are not important but remain indifferent or inattentive to those that are necessary and life-saving. Like Mary, there are pregnant women who need maximum attention! Unfortunately, there are countries whereby governments pay utmost attention to the funding of grandiose political campaigns, personal allowances, flashy committee meetings and lavish celebrations at the expense of maternity wards as in refurbishing and improving the conditions in maternity wards and hospitals at large. Like Mary, some pregnant mothers still deliver children in a ‘manger’ as in medical centers or hospitals with highly impoverished and outdated medical equipment and sometimes with inadequate beds, and in that sense some mothers need to sleep on the floor before or after delivery. Truly, what happened to Mary is not a thing of the past, it is ongoing, and that is one of the reasons why maternal death are high in some societies.
Beyond pregnant mothers, there are families, wage earners, disabled individuals, and street children whose struggles are often overlooked and neglected. This lack of attention brings us to the message of Christmas: unlike those in the inn who paid little heed to Mary’s vulnerable state, societies, governments, and individuals must shift their focus, rethinking what they notice in daily life, and directing their attention toward matters that truly need urgent care. Attention is more than just looking—it’s about being aware, sensitive, and ready to respond to what really matters. “Here, attention is a moral skill that allows a person to perceive what the situation demands in order to act welll”.
In the end, it seems to me that we live in a world where people are gradually losing their sensitivity compass because unimportant things spread like fire. People tend to spread these things and focus more on them, often neglecting those that are truly important and deserve the most attention. Now what has been said so far resonate with what Jordan Peterson said about perception: “we perceive the world through a hierarchy of values that filters information automatically”. Similarly, the story of Jesus being born in a manger—where Mary couldn’t find a suitable place to give birth because the guest house was full and her vulnerable condition was largely overlooked—serves as a reminder to shift and reorient the state of our perception in everyday life. It therefore encourages us to filter our social and perceptual experiences, focusing our minds and attention on the truly important aspects of social realities.
Truly, the world is full of concerns but not every concern need our immediate attention and time!
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