We once more celebrate Christmas Day, with the popular and commercialised figures such as of ‘Santa Clause’ – or the Coca-Cola man, as I sometimes call him, after those television advertisements – and reindeer, and mistletoe and wine, and children singing Christian rhyme. I’m really glad, there are still children singing Christian rhyme, because as society seems to get less Christian every year, the marks of Christianity are being taken over for the mass markets for merchandising. It’s hard sometime to see the Christian heart of the holiday for the colourful decorations.
But we still enjoy a bit of caroling, I hope. The Child is a king, the carolers sing, etc. The words at least are still very Christian. The soul of Europe is still Christian, after all the revolutions and rebellions and things. All the horrors we continually hear about on the television or the radio – if we still listen to radio – wretched men doing wretched things to hurt other people, or exploit them. But, despite all the madness and the distress… the Child is a king, the carolers will sing.
The rulers and the leaders of this world don’t like the little Child in the manger, with His shining face. They may smile at us Christians, as one of several religions to which they want to tolerate, but refuse to give true respect. They don’t like the Christ Child because He can rule the hearts of men and women in a way that they can never do. Despots hate that – they want to have their own way, and to be loved for it. The despot of the Christmas story is of course Herod ‘the Great,’ the maniacal Idumaean usurper, who was determined that only he and his sons should be kings of the Jews, and resented the little Child with the claim of King David. We know the story of the ‘three wise men’ from the East, whom he wanted to show him the Child, so he could end Him. We know how he ended up murdering numerous infants to get at the Child.
The spirit of Herod is still around, it is a malevolent and anti-Christian spirit. The despots of today don’t like our Christmas festivals, and to survive in such a hostile environment we Christians must increasingly live lives of sacrifice. If we do not, then we eventually give up our Christian identity and disappear into a growing mass of unbelievers and no-religion ‘nones,’ using Christian symbols but with no understanding of Christianity. When we have determined who truly rules our hearts, we shall live accordingly. When we have chosen the Child in the manger to be the Lord of our hearts, we shall find that we have to give up very much for His sake.
Christmas is a time of giving, a time of sharing, is it not? We are taught this as children. We are to be Charity itself, particularly at this time. We give each other gifts, making little sacrifices to do so. Knowledgeable people tell us that the Romans were so impressed with our Christmas that they eventually created their own tradition to rival ours at this time of year. That’s nice. We like to inspire the pagans. But we can go overboard in giving, because we also like a bit of receiving. It’s nice to have gifts. And don’t we have a wonderful commercial system now to help that? Lots of shops, lots of sales, and certainly lots of boxing on the Boxing Day.
Let’s think about giving more than receiving, though, and perhaps the type of giving that improves lives, instead of producing disposable piles of coloured plastic. That would be better. According to S. Paul, Our Lord Jesus Christ said that it is better to give than to receive. The little Baby in the manger always gave more than He received, and so should we who are His friends, His children. He probably never had much material possession to give away, but He gave other things. Give, He said elsewhere in the Gospels, without hope of return, of getting back what you have given or its value. As I’m sure some of you have heard me say before, the Baby of the manger is also the Man on the Cross. Dying in His early thirties, He gave up His very life, His entire self, in order that we His friends, His children would be free, utterly free, the adopted children of God, as He is Son of God.
Another thing (I think) I said on Sunday is that we are to remember the events of Christ’s life vividly, using imagery and music to do so. We should be able to enter into the stories, to take part in them, to find fellows among the characters there. Christmas is a spectacular example of that. With our carols and our Christmas cribs and decorations, we can be imaginative and walk into the little stable-cave of Bethlehem.
The first Christmas crib, I understand, was built by a famous Catholic deacon called S. Francis of Assisi, and it was life-size, with real animals, etc. I’m sure they still do something like that in places like Italy, perhaps even in Assisi where S. Francis lived. Picture S. Francis standing in the midst of his creation – his Christmas scene – and rejoicing in the poverty of God’s entry into the world of men. S. Francis, you see, was a man very much in love with simplicity and poverty.
So, tonight and tomorrow, we shall shred much wrapping paper and find new toys, both our young people and we older ones. It’s all great fun. But afterwards, I hope that we shall be able to stand before the crib and look upon the humble young Lady and her Child, with the guardian S. Joseph hovering nearby. And heaven cheering loudly overhead. For, shockingly even to the angels, God is suddenly a human being, Eternity binds Himself within time, He looks upon us with the eyes of a child and we know with a rush that He is not there for no reason at all, or for an adventure of some type.
He is there for you… and He is there for Me.
Catholic Louth and Mablethorpe 