For Mama

Every Christmas, Mama (my grand-aunt) takes time to make our Belen (tableau) at home.  A perpetual bachelorette, she has devoted much of her life serving the church any way she can.  I grew up to finding her spend many late nights decorating our parish church for Christmas (and yes, also for the Holy Week).  Year after year, she intricately designed the tableau at the altar of our tiny parish.  And every morning, at the dawn masses, she would proudly point to us her work in progress.  True enough, on Christmas day, Mama feels like a celebrant herself, as people flock to the church to pay respects to the Baby Jesus who rests comfortably on the crib which Mama painstakingly made, designed, and decorated.

Now a nonagenarian, Mama cannot see anymore.  But she still gushes at the thought that we have maintained her tradition of a Belen showcasing the Baby Jesus (from Vatican) given to her by a nun-friend many, many years ago. She nags knowing I have yet to make a sash with “Gloria In Excelsis Deo” on it to be hung at the Belen.  And at dawn, we still awake to find her saying her rosary in front of such tableau.

While Christmas may be the season to celebrate the birth of Jesus, I am more inclined to thinking of this season to celebrate the unconditional love we each receive from the people around us. I believe it is the essence of Christ’s birth – God’s unconditional love for humanity and Christ’s unconditional love for His Divine Father which prompted Him to surrender Himself completely to His Will.

Mama is one such woman.  Albeit bereft of a spousal love, she has deviated from the usual spinster-stereotype of a resentful, indignant woman.  She was never bitter about marriage even when her own favorite niece’s marriage didn’t work.   She is all-giving, and maintained a happy and spontaneous disposition even in her old age.  When she was still more mobile, she roamed the houses of her godchildren even  in the far barrios, to greet them on Christmas morning and give her simple present o f a toy or a shirt.  And she found such task undaunting even when it entailed having to collect our very own stock of groceries at home to give to her “less-fortunate” godchildren and friends.

Mama’s simplicity, generosity, and faithfulness continue to stir all those who know her.  She relishes the unexpected visits of friends, grieves silently at the death of another, and vows to pray for the fast recovery of an ailing amiga.  She still sets aside a cracker or a slice of bread to give to an apo who comes to her seeking to be consoled.  And she spends hours and hours and hours each day mumbling her prayers to each of the Saint she maintains in her collection. She explains that those Saints(all of which were given to her as gifts) were given to her for a divine reason. And the least she can do is pay respects to them by praying for them individually. 

She has not let her frail body and bare vision corrupt her disposition to continually spread good cheer to all who surround her.  She eagerly anticipates the Minister who gives her communion every Sunday.  She sits by her grotto and finds a calm delight caressing Mama Mary’s hands. All these she does with complete awareness that she has reached the twilight of her years.

We are glad to have one such woman in our midst.  This Christmas, we bask in the love that can only come from God’s eternal love for us – and for Mama’s unconditional love for us, unwavering faith in the good of all, and her steadfast dedication to the Church. 

Merry Christmas Mama. You are God's gift to us.