Christmas: Hunger for More or Hunger for Life?
By Rose Wu

This Christmas was described by the Hong Kong government as well as the media as the final confirmation of Hong Kong's recovery from SARS based on how much people spent. According to the South China Morning Post (SCMP) on Dec. 26, for example, restaurant and bar owners in random samplings reported that there was an average jump in business from last Christmas of 10 percent to 15 percent. Moreover, during the first 18 days of December, there were 180 BMWs sold that cost almost HK$2 million (US$257,600) per car. The above figures presumably indicate that Hong Kong's economy has been revived because local people are willing to spend and consume like they had earlier.

However, another side to the picture of Hong Kong as a rich and prosperous city consuming again is that of middle-aged men and women who are unemployed or in debt. To survive, more and more people in Hong Kong in the past few years have turned to the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) scheme, and many people have committed suicide under these stressful circumstances.

Sadly, this contradictory reality in which the rich are getting richer and the poor are becoming poorer is a worldwide phenomenon. There are more than a billion people - one member in five of our human family - living in abject poverty. The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has warned that, " if present trends continue, the global economy will be enormous in its excesses and bizarre in its inequalities ." In Hong Kong, these economic distortions are evident by examining a few statistics. For example, the income of the wealthiest 10 percent of the population in 2001 was 45 times that of the income of the poorest 10 percent of the population. In 1996, the difference was 38 times. As the gap between the rich and the poor grows ever wider, it becomes increasingly more difficult for the poor to meet their basic needs.

As we reflect on the meaning of the original Christmas at the time when the baby Jesus was born, we realise that there is a great perversion today of how contemporary society has turned the Christmas spirit from God's Immanuel with the poor into a market-driven frenzy of consumption. There is a stark contrast between the original Christmas based on humanity's hunger for life to the contemporary Christmas which drives people into a culture of hunger for more. The tragedy of this hunger for more culture is that it forces us to compete and fight against each other in order to survive as people are made to feel that they are either a winner or a loser. Meanwhile, the spirit of hunger for life teaches us to seek love, peace and justice so that we all can survive. It is exemplified by the birth of the baby Jesus as an alternative that generates new life and a new world order in which the poor are honoured as children of God.

In the Gospel of Luke, the birth of Jesus Christ was very much seen as a gospel of and for the poor and social outcasts. From Luke, we learn that Jesus was born into a relatively poor family. His father Joseph was a carpenter, and his mother Mary was an ordinary woman. Moreover, Mary as a single, pregnant woman must have been viewed by society as a social outcast or even labelled as an immoral woman. In addition, the birth of Jesus, according to Luke, was first announced to the shepherds who were the most marginalised and neglected sector of society.

Throughout the Bible, "the poor" are not only those who lack material goods but who also face discrimination in society - widows, prostitutes, tax collectors and sinners.

The Bible not only reveals to us God's concern for the poor, but it also points out that the poor are not passive victims waiting for others to rescue them. They were also described as partners of God's mission to bring salvation to the world. Conversely, the Bible is also very critical about excessive wealth and the ways in which it can corrupt the human spirit.

All around the world people's movements have risen up out of the culture of silence and are finding their voices. These cries of protest are countering forces against the culture of hunger for more and are seeking liberation by moving toward a culture of hunger for life. At the same time, ecumenical discussion has also begun to focus attention on the hidden links between poverty and wealth. In addition to contemplating what it means to be a " church in solidarity with the poor ," it has also called for an " economy of enough ," for it is no longer ethically and socially acceptable for the accumulation of wealth to become greed and to be indifferent to the suffering of the poor. Thus, let us remember and relive the spirit of Christmas by countering the culture of hunger for more and engage ourselves in seeking a life-giving and life-affirming movement in our time of human history that hungers for life.

Reprinted with permission from the HK Christian Institute's monthly newsletter