Christmas 2008

It is that time of year where those of us that yearn to know Christ in our daily lives come face to face with a society that works harder each Christmas to relegate him to not much more than an ancient curiosity. The significance of his birth lost in the celebration of it in the best case, and in the worst case there’s no more Christ in Christmas than in St. Patrick’s Day. Just this week I was in a Hallmark card store and noticed that all of the “Holiday Cards” had been compartmentalized into sections, one of which was for “Religious” Holiday cards! What a concept! By the way, that section was not quite as large as the “Humorous” one.

Here at the home of The Mole Hole, we do the best we can to fight the trend and keep the family focused on the real reason for the season. It would be easy to say that it’s mostly the children who are driven to the commercial aspect of the holiday, but that would be disingenuous. Both the adults in the household are just about as apt to be sucked into the greed machine that fires-up right after Halloween, if we were not watchful. I like that word, “watchful”. It was recently used by our parish priest in her attempt to define the Advent season. Watchful as in anticipation for the arrival of the Christ-child, but nowadays, I steer it towards meaning watchful, as in peering into a mirror and asking one’s self about what they should be looking for on this special day called Christmas. What do you expect out of the day?

There are so many bible phrases and quotes from great theologians that best frame what we should, as Christians, be focused on for this day, but in our modern era, there are times when a more simplistic and immature approach might be more effective. So for all of us who need to be watchful:

“He puzzled and puzzled ‘till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. What if Christmas perhaps, means a little bit more? - Dr. Suess

Let us all be watchful for something that means a lot more. Merry Christmas to all!