Prior to coming to the United States, I ministered to the Munda tribe for four years. Christmas is a big celebration for them. They call it "Bada Din," the big day. Of course, Christmas is the BIG DAY. God made a big decision on that day; a BIG ONE! The decision was one of the greatest turning points in the history of mankind. The Incarnation, the act of God becoming man. Why did God do it? God had to make this big decision because humans disfigured the world by disfiguring themselves. When God created the world, He said to Himself, "It is good," and so it was. The first humans enjoyed the world for some time and enjoyed it with God. God was a part of their lives and helped them to make decisions. So Adam and Eve were happy. They were in great harmony with God, with the  world, with every plant and animal in it. It was a harmonious co-existence. But that life with God did not last for long. Adam and Eve made their own decision to depart from God. They pushed God away from their lives. To maintain the world in order and in perfect harmony, God made a BIG DECISION.  God decided to incarnate Himself in human form. In doing so, God could repair the world which was disfigured by humans.  So Christmas became the big day for us; the day we celebrate the birth of Our Savior. It was a big day for the heavenly bodies, too. The angels were happy and they sang, "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests." (Luke 2:14)
The love God had for the world is expressed in the Gospel of St. John, 3:16: For God so loved the world... He loved the world so much because it was His handiwork. God thought it would be a better place for humans. He entrusted the world to man "to till the ground from which he had been taken." (Gen. 3:23) But we did not play the role of stewards well. It was the plan of God for humans to use the world according to His plan. Our stewardship of the earth is a form of participation in God's act of creating and sustaining the world. Therefore, our use of creation  must be guided by a concern for generations to come. But, we have gone one step ahead and taken ownership of creation, captured it from God, and did everything to it with our own human power and imagination. The result of our control of the world is found in this anonymous poem:

What happened to our role as stewards? What kind of stewards do we want to be? How can we protect human life and dignity? What kind of nation do we want to be? What kind of world do we want to shape? Our nation has been blessed with freedom, democracy, plenty of resources, and with generous and religious people. But does it reach far enough to transform the world? Our culture and family values do not lift us up, but  bring us down in moral terms. Our world is wounded by terror, torn apart by conflict, and haunted by hunger. Yet we feel proud to be the citizens of a great nation and proud to be citizens of the kingdom of heaven. We are still in the world, but we have an obligation to take part in the civic and political responsibilities through the eyes of faith to bring our moral convictions and Christian values into public life.

Very often, we feel politically homeless. However, if we want to be good stewards of creation, it is not the time to withdraw, but rather to take action and share the responsibilities of public life. It is by using our political rights and participating in public life that we can make our world a safer and better place to live. We can create a more just, secure, peaceful world, with more respect for human life and dignity. How can we make this earth a better place than the present world where 30,000 children die everyday as a result of hunger, large debts, and lack of development? Isn't now the right time to pool all our resources together and help parents to raise their children with respect for life, sound moral values, a sense of hope, and with the ethics of the kingdom of heaven? How can our Church, which is committed to social justice, help our brothers and sisters who are continuously fighting prejudice, hostility against immigrants and refugees, and those suffering from the wounds of racism, religious bigotry, and other forms of discrimination? Now is the right time for us to look around and see our neighborhoods and mend the broken values of justice and peace, to reach out to our little brothers and sisters who are below the poverty level and facing domestic violence. 

Make your Christmas a time of saving the world by extending a helping hand, educating the young, caring for the sick, feeding those who are hungry, sheltering the homeless, assisting the needy, welcoming refugees, serving the elderly, and helping the disabled. It is time to make our family and family values stronger than ever. Humans are not only sacred, but also social. Therefore, we have family and marriage. Every child is born into a social institution called the family. The newborn is a gift of God and the result of the sacred bond of marriage. Through the sacred sacrament of marriage, man and woman enter into a life-long commitment and raise a family that is the foundation of social life. Therefore, marriage should be supported and strengthened.

If we care with greater harmony and peace for the world and the creation that God entrusted to us, then this is one  way to respect Our Creator. It is one of the ways to make our world a safer and better place to live so that we can make our hearts, our home, our family, our society, and our world a welcoming place for the Savior to celebrate His birthday. That way we will not miss the time of His visit.