Monday, December 17, 2012

A CHAMORRO CHRISTMAS



Si Jose yan si Maria, estaguennao man maså'pet
(Joseph and Mary, there they are suffering)
O Yu'us na pelegrino, sugo' mågi giya hame.
(O pilgrim God, stop and stay with us.)

Taitutuhon na Tiningo', taihinekkok na Finaye, takkilon-ña i ta'chong-mo, ke i sagan mapagåhes.
(Wisdom without beginning, Knowledge without end, your seat is higher than the clouds.)
Håfa na un dingo på'go i ginefsagan i langet?
(Why now do you leave the comforts of heaven?)


Interpretive Notes

1. Joseph and Mary suffer - the trip from Nazareth, their home, to Bethlehem, Joseph's ancestral home, as required by the Roman Emperor for the purpose of registering with the census.  Mary is pregnant.  They find no place to stay in Bethlehem.

2. God is a Pilgrim God - the Son of God comes down from heaven into the womb of Mary; He makes the earth His home.  Inside the womb of His mother, He, too, travels from Nazareth to Bethlehem. 

3. The Divine Condescension - would we, in our right mind, leave a perfect place, free of all pain, to be born in a place of sorrow and suffering?  If we were the Creator and Ruler, would we take on the nature of the creature and the subject?  Yet this is what Almighty God did in the person of the Son.  He leaves the palace to "hit the road" as a pilgrim to a sorrowful earth to share in and redeem us from our miseries.

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