On this Christmas Day, many Filipinos and people around the world are probably opening their most-awaited gifts piled under the Christmas tree while the true meaning of Christmas is lost.

"A Christmas tree without the Belen or Christmas Crib is useless," Fr. Anton Pascual, executive director of Caritas Manila, told the DAILY TRIBUNE.

"Sadly, nowadays, I do not see the Belen in many houses and offices; it is replaced by gifts and Santa Claus. That's a wrong interpretation of Christmas," the priest said.

Fr. Pascual said the Christmas tree in itself has no significance.

"The purpose of the tree is for people to put the star on top so the star can shine a light on the Belen," he said.

The Belen consists of the baby Jesus, Mother Mary, and Father Joseph with some animals, the Three Wise Men, the star that guided them, and the shepherds to the manger where Christ lay.

Belen, a Spanish word that also means Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, is the nativity scene of Christ that symbolizes Christmas or the coming of Christ to save people from evil through his teachings and death.

Fr. Pascual said the concrete representation of Christ's birth affirms the love that God, the Father, has for His people.

"Always remember that Jesus is the reason for the Christmas season. It is God becoming man through Jesus and dwelling among us, for God so loved the world that He gave His only son," the priest said.

He added: "If you love a person, you want to be with that person, so the belen should be present because it is our remembrance of Him since Christ arrived 2,000 years ago."

Humility and simplicity

Breaking it down, Fr. Pascual said Belen's baby Jesus not only represents the desire of God to be close to the people but also humility.

"First, God wanted to be with us in a natural way by putting Jesus in the womb of Mother Mary and introducing Himself as a baby so humans wouldn't feel scared. Christ humbled himself and became one of us," he said.

Second, he said the manger conveys that Christ is the way through a blessed life, and people should always keep his teachings in mind and practice them.

"The manger is a trough from which animals eat. That's very symbolic as it means Christ is our food, our salvation. Later, it was symbolized by the Eucharist," Fr. Pascual said.

The Eucharist commemorates the Last Supper, where Christ gave his disciples bread and wine to represent his body and blood.

Lastly, the manger exemplifies simplicity in celebrating Christmas.

"The original Christmas was simple. Christ was born in a manger in a stable that was not a hotel. Many people do not put up the Belen because they have glamorized Christmas through the years," he said.

However, Fr. Pascual said people are free to decorate the Belen as they do the Christmas tree as long as the main elements of the nativity scene are displayed to remind people of the love of God through the birth of Christ.

"They can localize the Belen. For example, Filipinos put in carabaos while Australians place kangaroos in the Belen. The look of the Belen should not be a problem because it is not biblical. What is biblical is the birth of Christ," he explained.

Trio of reasons

Fr. Pascual said ignorance of the significance of the Belen has spread through a change in people's mindsets dominated by three ideologies: Secularism, materialism and relativism.

First, he said secularism is the removal of God or religion from the human consciousness or way of living.  As a result, Fr. Pascual said the disappearing practice of setting up the   has become just one of the signs that more people are shifting to secularism.

"Because of secularism, people no longer greet each other Merry Christmas. Instead, they say happy holidays. By not mentioning Christ, people are removing him from their lives," he said.