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There’s a story circulating on the Internet with a message for all of us as we approach Christmas.
A woman was out Christmas shopping with her two children. After many hours of looking at row after row of toys and everything else imaginable ... and after hours of hearing both her children asking for everything they saw on those many shelves, she finally made it to the elevator with her two kids.
She was feeling what so many of us feel during the holiday season time of the year. Overwhelming pressure to go to every party, every housewarming, taste all the holiday food and treats, getting that perfect gift for every single person on our shopping list, making sure we don’t forget anyone on our card list, and the pressure of making sure we respond to everyone who sent us a card.
Finally the elevator doors opened and there was already a crowd inside. She pushed her way in and dragged her two kids in with her and all the bags of stuff. When the doors closed she couldn’t take it anymore and stated, “Whoever started this whole Christmas thing should be found, strung up and shot.”
From the back of the car everyone heard a quiet calm voice respond, “Don’t worry we already crucified him.”
For the rest of the trip down the elevator it was so quiet you could have heard a pin drop.
I don’t think I need to belabor the fact that there is a lot of commercialism attached to Christmas, and that what should be a religious celebration leaves many people exhausted and even depressed.
There are those who take all this in stride because “it’s for the kids.” Christmas is indeed for those who have the heart of a child, but not in hot pursuit of some expensive toy that advertising creates in a young brain. Rather it is for the heart of a child (of whatever age) filled with wonder and awe that something mysterious is unfolding: the mystery of a gift package, wrapped up and hidden, given out of love, however humble the gift may be. Christmas belongs first and foremost to those who believe in the mysterious gift of God made man, Jesus Christ, poor and humble, “wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.”
Today books are written, and media stories abound, about attempts to banish Christ from Christmas, even to the extent of avoiding the very word “Christmas.” I leave it to you to judge the extent to which this is true in the face of all the evidence. Whatever the state of things in our culture, as Catholics we can still determine what our celebration of Christmas will be for ourselves, our homes, our families and our parishes.
I offer what follows as food for thought at the beginning of Advent.
My experience in inter-religious dialogue is that believing Jews, Muslims and others do not feel threatened by Christians expressing their beliefs at Christmas, any more than they would expect us to be threatened when they express their beliefs. Indeed, as Pope Benedict has pointed out, what a large part of the world increasingly finds threatening is the cynicism of secularized cultures that exclude God and religious beliefs.
As for fallen-away, alienated or non-practicing Christians, including Catholics, we do them no spiritual kindness by sheepishly hiding the very meaning of Christmas under the cover of “happy holidays.” This is not to say that every Christmas card, for example, has to refer to the Nativity, but it is discouraging — at least to me — to see that relatively few Christmas cards in most stores have any reference to Christ at all.
It may be objected that the cards speak of peace, joy and love. Christmas, however, is not about us conferring peace, joy and love, as if we were capable of such things left to ourselves. Rather, Christmas is about God conferring these divine gifts on us in the Person of His Son, so that we in turn can share them with all people of good will through our conversion and faith.
Gift-giving too can be an authentic sign of Christmas, full of spiritual meaning as I mentioned earlier. But what happens to the spiritual meaning when spending and shopping are ratcheted up to levels that create financial worries, strain and even exhaustion, or become the chief focus of our efforts and our celebration, as in the story of the bedraggled mother with which I began?
Many people are generous to worthy causes at Christmas. Wouldn’t the world be a better place, and the Christ Child more fittingly honored, if we spent a bit less on each other, and a bit more on the needy and poor? What if we were to match what we spend on each other with an equal gift to charity?
Commercially, Christmas begins around Halloween and is really over by the afternoon of Dec. 25, when it’s time to move on to the next holiday. By contrast, the great tradition of the church, expressed in so many ethnic traditions now increasingly forgotten, is that you cannot experience the meaning of Christmas unless you have prepared for it spiritually during Advent, especially by the sacrament of penance.
Christmas really begins with the Vigil Mass on Dec. 24, moves on to the Epiphany, and then ends on the Feast of Christ’s Baptism some days later. At the very least, let’s not be quick to abandon the celebration of Christmas in our homes and parishes by the end of December. Speaking of our homes, let’s also not forget the crèche and other signs of Christ’s birth as part of our decorations, especially if there are children present whose understanding of Christmas will be forever shaped by the sights, sounds and experiences we create for them.
And finally, what is Christmas without Christmas Mass, not just as an obligation to be fulfilled, but as the heart and soul of everything.
All of us are called to bring Christ to birth spiritually in ourselves and in our world. May you be blessed with a holy Advent, and with a Christmas that is filled with peace, joy and love because it is filled with Christ.
+ MOST REVEREND LEONARD P. BLAIR
BISHOP OF TOLEDO
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