WHEN international celebrity Marilyn Monroe, in her sexy tight-fitting gold gown that hugged her shapely figure, sang “Happy Birthday, Mr. President,” in May 1962, the attention of the world was momentarily focused on her. But John F. Kennedy, 45, was still center stage. After all, he was the honoree and the man of the hour.
During this season, jolly old Santa Claus — with his famous white mustache, beard, and long curly hair, red baggy outfit and winter black boots — is given the glory. Every year, he gets the honor. Men, women, young and old, and children of all ages, have accepted him as the symbol of Christmas itself — holiday cheers, gifts, food, and merriment. He appears to have a monopoly of the reverence and the spotlight is mostly on him all throughout the festivities.
It almost seems that without Santa Claus, there would not be any reindeer, sleigh, stockings, gifts, or even Christmas itself. Ask any child, and that would invariably be the answer you get. Santa Claus is very important during this holiday. Without him, there won’t be any Christmas. There won’t be any gifts. He is, after all, the bearer of gifts from the North Pole. That’s what the children are led to believe — unintentionally I am sure, but nonetheless that’s the subliminal vibe they get from adults as they grow up in very this materialistic world where priorities are sometimes twisted.
Everything during the Christmas season, including our conversations and greetings, is about Santa — the parties, food, drinks, gifts, and all the material things we can buy in this highly commercialized world. Many of us hardly talk to our children and amongst ourselves about the true meaning of Christmas, the Birthday Boy, the celebrant Himself. About His wonders, His greatness, and His ultimate sacrifice for us.
Are we off track focusing too much on ourselves, the material and earthly things and too little on the sacredness of Christmas?
Yes, I think we are, and, sadly, most inappropriately. We seem to have lost our focus. Jesus, the celebrant, is often relegated to the background, even forgotten during His own birthday party. Shopping, food and merriment preoccupy and overwhelm everybody’s minds during this holiday. The honoree, the Main Event, the very reason why we are celebrating in the first place, is no longer on the center stage. Sometimes, I feel that we have even neglected to invite Him to His own party. In many cases, He is nowhere to be found, because He may not be a conscious priority on our minds during this busy and festive occasion. The sheer joy of the celebration and the loud “Ho! Ho! Ho!” seem to have drowned Him out. We seem to be missing the significance and the holiness of it all.
Isn’t it time to put the birthday Boy back on center stage, where He belongs, and to honor Him in the right spirit? After all, this is His party. And we are only His guests.
To one and all, a Very Merry CHRISTmas, and to our Santo Nino in the manger: Happy Birthday, and thank you for the gift of life and for blessing us once again with the privilege of being invited to your celebration.
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Looking back
As the year comes to an end, there seems to be a natural sense that inspires us to reflect on the past. Please allow me to take you back on a virtual time machine to a decade and nine years ago.
My first Heart to Heart column in Cebu Daily News came out June 18, 1998, about four months after its maiden issue rolled out of the press on February 8, 1998, as a new Philippine Inquirer publication. Cebu Daily News has progressed a lot over the years to its current premier status, one that I am very proud of as a CDN writer.
Less than three months earlier, on November 21, 1997, my cardiac surgery team and I performed the first standard open-heart surgery at the Cebu Doctors’ (University) Hospital, where the heart was stopped and a heart-lung machine was used while doing the bypass. On June 8, 1999, we did the beating-heart off-pump coronary artery bypass (OPCAB), the first in the Philippines, a procedure now being done as a routine. The patient was a 68-year-old American retiree in Cebu and he had quadruple bypasses.
Mayor Mike Rama once labeled me “an adopted son of Cebu, a Cebuano at heart” (although I was a Tagalog/Pampangueno/Chinese born in Manila), because I shuttled almost every other month from Chicago or Las Vegas to Cebu to do heart surgery at the Cebu Doctors’ University Hospital, flying more frequently to Cebu than most Cebuanos in the USA. I was tickled pink with that privilege and distinct honor, especially because I have always had a special place in my heart for the great people of Cebu, even before I visited Cebu for the first time in 1996.
In December 2010, I retired from the chairmanship of the CDUH Cardiovascular Surgery, a position CDUH President and Chairman, Dr. P. V. Larrazabal, Jr., had appointed me to in 1997. The rapid progress of CDUH and its various colleges and satellite hospitals has impressed me to no end. I am very proud and grateful to have been a part of CDUH and its fantastic staff and employees.
Time has flown by so fast. In those 13 years of my life in Cebu, I was blessed with a lot of friends and patients, who I frequently think of with fond remembrances. I now visit Cebu about once or twice a year, while on our annual medical missions in the Philippines. Those happy memories I shall cherish each day as they provide me warmth in the winter of my life.
On this holiday, I wish to greet all my friends, past patients, my fellow members of the Cebu Daily News Family, the CDUH Family, readers of my column, and all the other wonderful people of fabulous Cebu a blessed Christmas and a new year filled with love, good health, peace, prosperity, and time to enjoy them.
God bless. See you next year!!
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Philip S. Chua, MD, FACS, FPCS, Cardiac Surgeon Emeritus in Northwest Indiana and chairman of cardiac surgery from 1997 to 2010 at Cebu Doctors University Hospital, where he holds the title of Physician Emeritus in Surgery, is based in Las Vegas, Nevada. He is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, the Philippine College of Surgeons, and the Denton A. Cooley Cardiovascular Surgical Society. He is the chairman of the Filipino United Network – USA, a 501(c)(3) humanitarian foundation in the United States. Email: [email protected]
