I watched the conquerors riding by,
with cruel lips and faces wan,
Brooding on empires sacked and burned,
there rode the Mogul, Genghis Khan.
And Alexander, like a god
who sought to weld the world in one,
and Caesar with his laurel wreath,
and like a thing from Hell, the Hun.
And leading like a star the van,
heedless of upstretched arm and groan,
inscrutable Napoleon passed,
dreaming of empire and alone.
Then all these vanished from the earth,
like melting snows and ebbing tides,
While conquering down the centuries,
the swordless Christ a donkey rides.
I probably learned this verse in school in Ireland, but it was only years later, in Africa, that I realized the full significance of the last line.
To describe my first Christmas in Africa and how it stirred me to the very depths of my soul, I don’t think I could do better than simply quoting from my book, Yes, I’d do it Again.
“Shortly after 11 o’clock the church bell rang, the doors were opened and people crowded in. There were not only Catholics but Protestants and pagans. The church, which was quite a large building, was packed in no time. The choir began to sing the Christmas carols. It is an extraordinary and very emotional experience to find oneself thousands of miles from home and hear the familiar carols sung in a different tongue.
“I sat listening to the African children, with their clear voices, singing the same tunes that have rung down the centuries and were being repeated that same night in countless churches and myriad languages in the most remote corners of the globe. I was keeping my emotions fairly well under control until the harmonium struck up ‘Silent Night.’ I turned my chair completely around to hide my tears.
“The crib or Nativity Scene was over at the side and covered with a sheet. At the end of Mass, the ushers removed the sheet and the people lined up to view the Babe in the Manger. In his homily, Father Lynch explained the meaning of Christmas. Many who were not Christians would be hearing the story for the first time. I turned my chair around and sat at the side of the crib watching the faces of the people in the candle light.
“I was particularly interested in the reactions of the pagan women, with their own babies on their backs or at their breasts. They gazed at the Mother and Child with wonder in their eyes, knowing that it was something of another world but never doubting the truth of the story.
“Africans, particularly out in the bush, have retained natural values which we, in the sophisticated West, have lost. One of these values is the glory of motherhood. Every African woman wants to be a mother, and the fact that when God came down on earth He had chosen to be born of a woman was simply another indication of the dignity of motherhood. In a strange way the story of Christmas came alive for me that night as never before.
“When the services were ended the people left the church but stood outside to chat and wish each others the blessings of the Feast. Then they left for their sometimes long journey home. Father Lynch and I waited until the last person had left. Then he turned to me and said, ‘For the African, Christmas is over. For the whiteman it has scarcely begun.”
There have been few more arrogant figures in history than Napoleon Bonaparte. He almost conquered the world of his time but was finally defeated by the British at the Battle of Waterloo. He had been born a Catholic but, for him, the Church was a political instrument which he used or misused as it suited his ambitions.
When the English exiled him to the Island of St. Helena, he took to the study of the Gospels. “Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Charlemagne and myself, we have all tried to found empires and our empires have crumbled in the dust because, they were founded on force. And today, nearly 1900 years after His death, there are millions of men who are prepared to lay down their lives for His Name.” Then he asked the rhetorical question, “Can He be less than God?”
If the baby born in the stable 2000 years ago is not God, then Christmas is a sham. But, if He is God, we cannot offer Him anything less than everything we have and everything we are.
