KARACHI: Christmas celebrations began at midnight with a jam-packed congregation at the biggest parish of the city, centrally-located St Patrick’s Cathedral, with prayers held in the vast grounds of the church under a tent set up to hold the big crowd. Special prayers were carried out for the country.

The first daytime mass was held at 7:30am inside the cathedral. Prayers were held and blessings showered over the sick and the deceased with the calling of each of their names. There were significant readings to mark the birth of Jesus Christ from the Bible, the church choir sang joyful hymns and parish priest Father Mario Rodrigues, also the rector of St Patrick’s High School, led the prayers.

The St Patrick’s grounds may not have the pine, spruce, fir, cypress or cedar trees, but the trees there were also beautifully decorated like any Christmas tree with stars, bows, stockings, sparkling glass balls, bells, reindeers, etc. The big Neem leading to the main cathedral entrance also had a number of gifts under it.

Father Mario mentioned in his sermon how the story of the innkeeper turning away Mary and Joseph is a sad one. He narrated an incident from when he was in Canada where some children were performing a school play based on the story of the birth of Jesus Christ.

St Patrick’s Cathedral hosts biggest congregation in city

“The innkeeper was being played by a little boy with Down’s Syndrome who had practiced for days his only line ‘There is no room in the inn.’ He read his line well during the performance but as Mary and Joseph turned to leave, he added something which was not in the script. He said, ‘But there is room in my house.’ The entire audience burst out laughing. But it was the compassion and love in his little heart for Jesus that made him do this,” Father Mario pointed out.

“Today all of you will say that you have a place in your homes for Jesus. But if you have your friend or a relative, even a cousin, at your house asking to stay there, you will say ‘Oh no, I have no room.’ Today, if you have the homeless, the hungry or the thirsty come to you, you say to them that you have nothing, that you are yourself struggling,” he pointed out.

“Let us go out, let us spread the message of love and do something special for someone. Let us be listeners, rather than just talkers,” the learned priest reminded before leading prayers for all the people of this world going through hardships.

Karachi administrator meets archbishop

Later in the day, the St Patrick’ parish was paid a visit by Karachi Administrator Dr Syed Saifur Rahman to meet Archbishop of Karachi Bishop Benny Mario Travas.

The administrator said that Christmas was one of the major festivals of the world and that he was glad to be celebrating it with the Christian community in Pakistan. “Our Christian brothers have played an important role in the construction and development of Karachi,” he reminded.

On the occasion, Dr Rahman also cut a Christmas cake with the Bishop and other members of the community.

While talking about interfaith harmony and how celebrations of the Christian community are being organised in Karachi, he spoke about how Sharea Faisal had been decorated for Christmas with the aim of making the Christian community realise that they had the right to celebrate their festivals according to the rights given to them under the Constitution of Pakistan.

“Our religion also teaches us to respect other religions and provide them opportunities to perform their religious rituals according to their own beliefs,” he said.

Bishop Benny Mario Travas thanked the administrator for coming to the cathedral and joining in their festival. He also appreciated how it was for the first time after the creation of Pakistan, that the community was allowed to decorate Sharea Faisal for Christmas.

“We have been provided with the best security here for Christmas,” the bishop said while thanking the administrator and the civic administration and law enforcement agencies.

Also present on the occasion were Municipal Commissioner Syed Shujaat Hussain, heads of the departments of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, Justice Helpline head Nadeem Shaikh, Salim Michael and others.

It was said that all the Christian employees of the KMC were paid their salaries and pensions before Christmas so that they could celebrate the day happily with their families.

Published in Dawn, December 26th, 2022