Appreciating Christmas
by Archbishop Edward J Gilbert
(Taken from the Catholic News - 22 December 2009)
One of the signs of a developing maturity in a person’s life is moving from knowledge about something or someone to a profound appreciation of that something or someone. Examples of that dynamic abound. Consider these issues: love in marriage, relationship with God in the spiritual life, commitment to personal friendship, participating in pastoral service for others and even meaning in life itself.
Unfortunately, there is also the reality of people who never really mature. As the saying goes, “you are only young once, but you can be immature forever”. The relationships of immature people are shallow, they are involved in nothing beyond themselves and their lives are rather empty even if, in some cases, wealth allows them comfort.
In my Christmas column, I want to offer the reader an opportunity to reflect on whether or not a developing maturity is part of their lives. I shall offer a series of brief teachings on the meaning of Christmas along with reflection questions through which the reader can examine her/his life in a specific and practical manner. The goal is to determine whether we have moved from celebrating Christmas as history or whether we truly appreciate the meaning of Christmas.
Trust
Christmas celebrates the fact that the preaching of the prophets has been fulfilled. God has kept his word. The Messiah has come. The Word has become flesh.
During the long wait between the promise and its fulfillment, many believers wondered if the promise would ever be fulfilled. Some imposed their own timetable for fulfilment on God. Others moved beyond wondering to doubt and allowed their impatience and doubt to weaken or even to convince them to give up their faith. When the promise was fulfilled, their hearts were stone cold with the result that they could not accept the Messiah.
There were also believers who trusted in God even though they died before the promise was fulfilled. As a matter of fact, many generations of believers did die waiting. However, they waited and died confidently because their faith and hope were strong and their prayer sustained them.
To appreciate Christmas our faith must be alive and our trust in God must be profound. If not, we simply celebrate Christmas as a “done deal” of history or a nice social holiday with implications for family. If we appreciate what we celebrate then every element of Christmas receives our full attention and brings forth renewed life.
Reflection questions: Do I trust God? (e.g. regarding the promise of the second coming)? Do I thank God in prayer for keeping his word?
Love
The Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, teaches us that every human person has been given one basic responsibility in life: to love sincerely, authentically and freely. The crèche is a picture of that responsibility to love: the love of Jesus for all people, the love within the Holy Family and the adoring gratitude of the shepherds.
The Holy Father when speaking of love admitted that learning to love is a long and demanding journey. Appreciating Christmas is a help to understanding love and making that lifelong journey. Christmas enables us to see the selflessness of love when God became one with us. The Word became flesh. His obedience to the Father was motivated out of love for us. There was nothing in it for him.
Pope Benedict continued his teaching about love by specifying the requirements of the long and demanding lifelong journey to love: 1) We must know ourselves well; 2) We must be willing to accept self-denial in our lives which leads to self-mastery and freedom. 3) We must be willing to obey the values of God contained in the commandments. 4) Finally, we must be faithful to prayer.
Many people who refuse to accept and sincerely live by these requirements for authentic love, frequently have to live with the quiet or public agony that follows the mistakes they have made through disordered affection and personal selfishness.
Reflection questions: Have I learned the meaning of love because of Christmas. Is my love of others authentic? Do I appreciate those whom I love or is my love qualified by selfishness and selectiveness. Is my love functional i.e. do I relate to others because I need them?
Joy
One of the marks of Christmas is to experience joy. The definition of joy is the happiness that comes from possessing something good. What could be more joyful than being in relationship with God?
Joy increases in proportion to the appreciation we have of the good we possess. Joy flowing from faith gives us a perspective for life that enables us to carry the inevitable crosses of life which can be both unfair and crushing. The saints who truly appreciated that God became man were joyful in all things no matter what challenged them because of their relationship with Jesus and the expectation they had about the blessedness of eternity.
Christian people who know about but who do not appreciate Christmas lack the joyful perspective for life that Christmas brings. They never even think of celebrating the entire Christmas cycle which ends on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord (January 10 this liturgical year). When Christmas day is over, they move immediately to secular or cultural concerns e.g. carnival preparations.
One of the practices of some religious communities is to celebrate what is called “little Christmas” on the 25th of each month of the year. The reason for the practice is to consistently highlight the meaning of Christmas and to remind the members of the community of the joy that should mark their lives.
Reflection questions: As we approach the celebration of Christmas can you say that you are joyful because God has kept his word? Is your relationship with the Lord significant enough to sustain your joy no matter what challenges you face in life?
The themes that we have reflected on are intrinsic to Christmas. Other themes could easily be added to our reflection e.g. justice and peace. All these Christmas themes must be kept alive in our hearts by prayer and celebration.
Our prayer must include gratitude and adoration. Our liturgical celebrations require informed participation. Our involvement in ministry must give visibility to the love and service we stress at Christmas.
My prayer for those who appreciate Christmas is that their appreciation will continue to deepen qualitatively as the years pass. My prayer for those who still celebrate Christmas as a distant historic event or simply as a social holiday is that the Holy Spirit will touch their hearts so they will open themselves to the meaning of Christmas and eventually experience the joy and peace that Christmas offers.