CHRISTMAS – 2008

Readings for Christmas 

 

“I’m glad that’s over,” he said.

At first I thought he referred to the mass of Christmas that we had just celebrated.  Perhaps he didn’t appreciate the carols selected for the Liturgy.  Or, he thought the homily had gone on too long.  Or, the church was more crowded than he would like.

Rather than indulge my first inclination and become defensive and confrontational, I said, “Tell me more.”  What followed was a litany of woes of a man who had been pressed beyond the limits of his endurance to meet others’ expectations for what was essential for a merry Christmas.  He was tired, drained, and in no mood for what would follow for the rest of his Christmas day.  I am afraid he was not alone.  Many limp into Christmas like marathoners exhausted by the race they have run.  And in the process of preparing, sight is lost of what the feast is all about.

I don’t mean to place a damper of anyone’s feast.  Merry Christmas is not a bad greeting.  Think of the carol that sings: “God rest you, merry gentlemen, let nothing you dismay!”  Aside from the sexist language, that is not a bad sentiment.  The year that is drawing to a close has been difficult for many.  The news has been filled with stories of financial troubles, rising unemployment, housing foreclosures. Are we in a time of recession?  Or is it depression?  Violence in our streets seems to be escalating.  And there is the on-going horror of war.  I wonder if, rather than trying to escape for these realities and bury our heads like ostriches in the sand, we ought to look at them squarely in the face, so to speak, and there find the true meaning of the feast that we celebrate.

Maybe it will help if we take a renewed slant on the symbols that are part of the Christmas proclamation.  Christmas cards and crèches do a disservice.  Again, do not misunderstand; I am not opposed to either.  But unfortunately most cards and cribs support the illusion that that first Christmas encapsulated bliss.  A night bejeweled with diamonds sparkling in the sky.  Angels.  Shepherds.  Magi.  All are visitors to the elegantly clad parents of the newborn lying in a manger.  What could be more splendid?

Look a little closer.  It may have been a starry night, but that would have been all that was right about it.  It is abject poverty that forces the young couple to take up temporary residence in a cave not meant for human habitation.  The ox and ass that are part of crib scenes, remind the onlooker that unpleasant reminders of animals remain after they have gone on their way, and among them lice and fleas, to say nothing of the odors.  There is great symbolic meaning in the manger that becomes the baby’s first bassinette.  But do not forget, it remains a feed trough meant to hold the food to be consumed by the animals.  It is a symbol of the wood from which the adult now in infant form will hang giving himself over to be consumed body and blood by those who believe in him.  The shepherds idealized by Rembrandt and other artists were in fact considered to be on the bottom rung of society, their company avoided, an unpleasant lot for the most part.

What is the point of this demythologizing?  The romantic pastel scene gets in the way of the power of the message.  Everything in the Christmas-gospel narrative proclaims God’s infinite love for human kind, broken and sin-touched though they be and God’s desire to embrace humanity in the community that is God.  “God so loved that world that he sent his only begotten son.”  “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”  This God is not distant, aloof or remote.    It is not in earthly splendor that God comes, but as a vulnerable child, meek and humble.  In other words, in whatever difficult situation people might find them selves Christmas reminds us that this is what God has taken upon himself in the union between the human and divine that is Jesus.  That union is forever.  And so there is hope.

Christ’s coming into the world is a source of consolation for those who feel lost and abandoned.  The dying and rising of Jesus that we renew in every Christmas Liturgy reminds those who mourn and those nearing death that death has been conquered and life prevails.  The Infant in the manger challenges us all to be sharers, to be willing to give of what we have so that all might have something of the essentials of life.  The word Socialism has been cast about with abandon as a criticism of some of the proposed social-economic reforms.  The Infant confronts people of Christian faith.  In accepting Christ we must accept the reality of community and communal responsibility that Christ brings.  When the 5,000 were fed, remember, Jesus said, “You give them something to eat.”  In other words, Jesus was saying, “It is your responsibility.”

My friend who told me on his way out for Mass that he was glad that was over had every reason to voice that sentiment, if by that he meant the excesses, the commercialism, and the impossibility of meeting the desires of those grounded in the latest fads or signs of temporal success and power.  Now that that is over he can take the time to rest, to enter into mystery and be embraced in love.  And once embraced he can set about living that love and recognizing the Christ in the least ones who are Christ in flesh and blood.  Accepting forgiveness, he can be an ambassador of forgiveness in a world that all too often seeks only revenge.

May every Christ blessing be yours, especially the peace that abides when Christ dwells in you.  Remember, Christ took on your flesh.  His resurrection is your hope.

Sincerely,

Didymus