My Advent message

My Advent message

Every year, but it seems particularly this year, there is confusion about “what would Jesus want?” People, correctly, decry the commercialization of Christmas, and also the unmet needs of the poor. This does not mean, however, that Jesus would “want” people to forgo generosity and gift giving on the occasion of Christmas.

When Jesus drove the money changers from the Temple he was not cleansing the Temple of “shopping” or “commercialization.” He was objecting to the high price that the corrupt Jewish priesthood at that time was charging for the obligatory sacrifice performed by the people. People were forced to purchase animals for sacrifice and an entire money changing and exploitive financial operation had grown up around this, right in the sacred space of the Temple. It was as if you were forced to go to Church and then forced to pay a certain exorbitant amount of money depending on the occasion or the sin, just to see the animal slain, “offered to God,” and the priests and money changers profit. Incidentally this is very carefully regulated in Islam. During the Hajj, which is this month, pilgrims make sacrifice to God, but they purchase low price coupons, the animals are slain in approved areas, and the meat from the animals is given to poor Muslims around the world, many of whom cannot afford to have meat at all except for this time of year. This was why Jesus was horrified and scandalized, because far from the practices of Moses, Isaac, David and the other prophets and kings of the Bible, contemporary corruption had made sacrifice to God a Temple money making venture, and the poor were exploited. So to cite this cleansing by Jesus of the Temple as a reason not to give gifts at Christmas, as some have done, is entirely wrong. This is actually part of the symbolism and the pragmatic reason that Jesus initiated at the Last Supper the sacrifice of Holy Eucharist within the New Covenant. Rather than take money from the poor, Jesus became the Lamb of the Sacrifice to God, in the form of bread and wine. There is a special sensitivity in the choice of Jesus to institute this sacrament using bread and wine because in the Old Testament we read that the poor were able to sacrifice a measure of grain, lacking the funds for expensive sacrifice of livestock. Jesus chose humble bread and wine to be the continuing form of sacrifice to God, what everyone can afford, and what is symbolic of the poor and humble’s food.

When speaking of taxes, Jesus made the well known admonition to give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s. Like all that Jesus said and taught one can compare the situation Jesus was directly addressing with similar questions. It is possible to be a citizen of the world, but also to render to God what is God’s.
We know that Christmas on December 25 is not the literal time of the birth of Jesus, because Jesus was born during the time when there is lambing. Since people did not know the date of his birth they decided to celebrate it by imposing it directly upon a pagan festival date. This was a common practice, to impose a Christian date upon a defeated or diminished pagan date if there was no information about a more correct timing. People who think that a Christian date occurring on a pagan date is evidence that “Christianity came from paganism” are ignorant and wrong, and have it in reverse order. As people converted from paganism to Christianity, it was a stamp on the past to impose a Christian date, lacking evidence of the actual date, on a pagan festival. In addition to worshipping pagan gods and idols, which is wrong, festivals also provided a human contact social need, for example celebrating harvests, and as a mid-winter festivity. Therefore there is nothing wrong with combining and co-celebrating the purposes of celebrating the Nativity of Jesus with a gift oriented and celebratory holiday of Christmas.

Jesus said that the poor will always be with us, but that he (physically) would not be. I cannot believe people who claim that Christmas should not be celebrated except in service to the poor. What about the rest of the year? Service and care of the poor should be such a complete and total concern of truly pious people that Christmas should be no different in levels of concern than the rest of the year. Are not the poor alone and suffering on every day of the year? Yet it is only once a year that families come together to remember and celebrate the birth of Jesus. While charity should of course be part of the celebration (such as programs like Toys for Tots, provision of food baskets, the wonderful Salvation Army programs, etc) Jesus would be hurt to believe that celebrating with gift giving in one’s family and social circle must be eliminated in order to be dour on behalf of the poor once a year. That makes no sense.

The only problem, of course, is when the Nativity of Jesus disappears as the meaning of Christmas. Christmas as a word and as the arrival of the Holy Babe Jesus has been purged from the commercial and public square. And gift giving has, to some degree, been mechanized to less of a joyous “gifting” of loved ones with obligatory consumerism. But these are not reasons to dismantle the gift giving of Christmas. Rather these are reasons for renewal in attitude to the way things were meant to be. Christmas was meant to be a day that the entire faithful look forward to in hope as the day the Savior was born. Christmas was also meant to be the generous celebration and sharing of gifts, food, recreation, and appreciation of the goodness of the material world with friends, family, community, and in global communion.

Think about the lead up to Christmas. On the actual day over two thousand years ago, of course no one knew the day the Messiah would be born. So Advent, the four weeks leading up to Christmas, was the recognition by the Church that these should be the four most joyous weeks of the year, second only to the day of the Resurrection of Christ. Advent is the time when as Christians we contemplate with growing joy the arrival of the Savior… an anticipation that the people living at the time of Jesus would never know! The Church recognized that people need to feel the joy of the “good news, the great tidings” that Jesus brought to humanity. This is why the entire month of Advent is dedicated to the joyous anticipation and the celebration.

Christmas Day is the day that the Holy Family became a family, when Joseph and Mary welcomed their son into the world. How could Christmas not be a time of gift giving when the greatest gift that ever arrived was born on this day of God? There were Joseph and Mary, and then “baby made three.” Not only was Jesus born on Christmas Day but it is the prototype for the birth of the loving family of parents and child. Why would Jesus disapprove of celebrating the family on his “birthday,” when it was the same day that the Holy Family was born? And the angels heralded his arrival and brought “the neighbors,” the humble shepherds to receive the honor and gift of being the first to visit Jesus. Christmas Day in even the most religious interpretation is the very model of celebrating family, friends, community and the sharing of gifts!

Jesus would love Christmas trees with the lights and the ornaments. He would love seeing the crèche with statues of his earthly parents, of himself as a babe, and of the animals that kept them warm in the stable, and the shepherds who were the first to visit him. He would love that people who work so hard all year (and he would disapprove of the modern stress of the workplace) have time to eat real home cooking (for those who remember how to do it), sleep late (unless little children are very eager to unwrap their gifts!), engage in sports, gather together to reacquaint themselves with each other and yes, to go to Church and praise God. How anyone can think that Jesus would not love and bless the generosity of genuine gift giving and celebration on Christmas is the most absurd pretention of misunderstanding of his entire message and being. What Jesus would disapprove of is the forgetting of honor for God, who is after all, the one who sent him. When people take the “Christ” out of Christmas, what they are really doing is ignoring God’s gift of salvation to humanity. He would correctly suspect, shrewd in human behavior that he is, that secularism strives to push God out of the public square wrapped in dirty rags of pretended concern for the poor. It is not as if Jesus sought praise and worship for his own sake even when he was alive and walking the earth, but rather, he brought the Kingdom of God to those who could see and hear (curing those who could not physically see and hear by the way!)

The Roman Catholic Church has, since Pentecost, been under the protection and guidance of the Holy Spirit. The four weeks of Advent, the celebration of Christmas Day, and the role model of St. Nicholas exist for a reason just as they have for all these centuries. The Catholic Church holds its spine firm to the bedrock apostolic faith as given by Jesus to the Apostles and disciples, while at the same time it wraps its arms around the human faces of the faith and the celebration of it. Traditions of celebration of this religious holiday evolved in an appropriate way under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. There is no reason that Advent and Christmas Day not be a time of religious study, joy and renewal combined with celebration and gifting of one’s reality of family, friends and community. It would actually be false to have one without the other. What we increasingly have today is horrifying because both are diminished, where not only is Christ banished from Christmas but family oriented generosity is sneered at as somehow being disrespectful toward the poor. As I said, I hasten to remind people that Christmas Day is also the birthday of the Holy Family and love of children. And remember the reality of life intruded very rapidly on the Holy Family too. It was mere days later that the Holy Family had to flee the slaughter of the Innocents, as Herod sought to kill the baby Savior. So there is no one who lived who can tell the Holy Family about “reality” and what is “relevant.” On December 28 we all remember the unnamed thousands of children who were slain on Herod’s orders, hoping that Jesus, whose identity he did not know, would be one of those. Does that not make the need for the joy of celebrating the birth of the Savior, the Holy Family, and their coming together with the first believers all the more important, holy and pertinent? Of course it does.

See, I feel sad even mentioning that dreadful day because Advent and Christmas Day should be a time of pure joy. But I am tired and angry with those who think they know what Jesus would “want” and “not want” who then put it in such petty and mean spirited tones. So I am forced to remind people that no one knew “reality” and its necessary counterbalance, the need for joy and celebration of God’s goodness and of the core family, more than Jesus and the Holy Family. It is outrageous to suggest otherwise.

My suggestion, which is probably like spitting into the wind, is to try to retrain the children (and adults) within your sphere of influence toward more wholesome gift giving at Christmas, not to eliminate it. Think about gifts that will not only give your loved ones joy, but are also rich in growth and goodness. That does not mean that I’m against computers and IPODs as gifts, but I need to remind you that children are being robbed of their childhood by being given the things of adults far too soon. If they do not have their years of innocence and simplicity of confidence and joy they are placed under too much pressure and rather than receiving a gift, they are having a deficit. For example, rather than give a pre-school child a computer, even one designed for them, why not give them a daily 30 minutes of time on mom or dad’s lap, playing a children’s game together on video or computer? There is no better gift you can give children but your time with them playing. Why not make an effort this year to get gifts for your children that are not mechanized babysitters, but are games and activities that you can do together? Children love things they can build, for example, if they can do it with mom or dad. If you are getting your child four gifts, for example, I’d ask that one of those gifts be one that you plan to enjoy together with your child, investing your time and attention.

I hope that everyone has a wonderful Advent with all the shopping, cooking, decorating, and safe travel joys of preparation for Christmas!