The Meaning of Christmas

            We decorated the house this week for Christmas.  It is an incredible job for a couple of senior citizens.  I have to get all of the boxes down from the attic, we have to unpack them and find all of the things that we thought we had lost.  I put up the imitation tree and Rosie puts on the ornaments.  We get the light strings more or less sorted out and hang them in appropriate places.  Santa goes on top of the china closet and Mrs. Santa finds her place on top of the refrigerator.  We work to get it all done by this coming weekend because we will celebrate multiple birthdays this Sunday.  Mine is the sixteenth, Beethoven’s birthday, our daughter Melanie’s is the fifteenth and our grandson in law, Pete has his on the eleventh.  Beth, Melanie’s partner and friend has hers on the eighteenth.  There is a lot to celebrate and we will have a great celebration dinner to commemorate all of it. 

            But decorating the house only one way that we get ready for the great festival of Christmas; there is shopping and cards and all kinds of things that we have to do before the great day comes: we need to decide what to get the kids for Christmas and which of the many events we will try to attend.  Jennifer always has a wonderful “cookie day” when she and all of her friends and the little ones gather in her kitchen to bake cookies.  There is always a dinner and I am always one of the cookie “judges”, which puts me in a terrible position of having to decide which are the best cookies.   It is a festive time and I love getting together with all of the people and celebrating. 

            Celebrating is really what this season is all about.  It isn’t about getting things, although we have been taught that it is from our birth.  For many of us, we have enough of everything and we don’t really need more.  Television and the other media constantly tempt us to buy.  Everyone is always having some kind of a sale; the car dealers offer specials, the appliance stores and the department stores tempt us with what look like remarkable bargains, which may or may not be true.  The bottom line is that we really don’t need more “stuff”.  The people who need stuff are the poor and the homeless and they sometimes benefit from the season, but it isn’t really the heart of the matter. 

            Mary’s wonderful Magnificat spells out the responsibility that those who follow Jesus have not only at Christmas time, but all year long.  She sings this great psalm after the Angel Gabriel announces to her that she is pregnant with Jesus, who will grow up to be the hope of the world.  She sings this tribute to God:

            He has shown the strength of his arm,  
    he has scattered the proud in their conceit.
   He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,  
    and has lifted up the lowly.
   He has filled the hungry with good things,  
    and the rich he has sent away empty.

            There is the essence of Christian responsibility for anyone who wants to follow in the footsteps of Jesus.  Getting and spending is not our agenda.  Taking care of those who have nothing is what we are here for.  When I see the Salvation Army kettles outside of the supermarkets, I feel that something is being done; but never enough.  We still tramp all over each other to get to the specials in the stores and knock the homeless aside in our rush.  This is the essence of sin: the overwhelming need that we have to get more and more. When we can finally decide that those who have nothing are more important than we are is when the world will finally settle into peace.  Until then, we will continue to have racism, terrible political controversy and religious differences that seem to be insurmountable.  The way through this is through the lives of the poor and the homeless.  Can we make their Christmas a bit more merry?  That really isn’t as hard as it seems.  It only requires each of us to look upon those in need with compassion and without judgement.  God bless us in this magnificent season and God bless all of those who hope that they can escape the prison of want and need.