December 2013 – “The War for Christmas”

Published in the Westchester Guardian, December 2013

A Poem, G.K. Chesterton and the Battle inside Ourselves

What should lead to joy and the renewal of our faith has turned outwardly into a shallow, superficial gorge fest on the possession of the material, satisfaction of the physical.

Christmas, what are the images that come to the mind of a child, a parent, a young couple?  Do our images reflect our maturity? Christmas seems a simple Holiday but our culture adds stress, anxiety, depression, everything from which faith might free us. I create my own stress in not seeking what I need most and remedy is so close. I have a choice. Our Christian beliefs have so much to offer that is promptly ignored.

(This country, the continuing, great experiment of human liberty, is sometimes ‘wonderfully’ secular, fighting a battle that should never end – a battle of limits, designations, meaning of where the line, if there should be one, between faith and national identity. Maybe I have been fighting the wrong battle. This is an internal fight of perception of belief and faith. The battle that can only be settled in each and every heart.)

The Battle

“The world seems to celebrate Christmas long before Christmas and then when Christmas comes, everyone stops celebrating. Should be just the opposite.” G.K. Chesterton

Through our mass media, I see so much has been lost for so long for profit. Has it been getting worse or is it my imagination and frustration of living in a very secular society encompassing many micro-cultures “hidden” by consumerism. Is it the failure of my inability to be still, to block out the noise and see the beauty this season and its prayerful celebrations unfortunately and unintentionally? I’m just overwhelmed by the economic forces that hide the peace this Holiday could bring. Any wonder there are so many lonely, disenfranchised people.

Is it my inability to mentally and spirituality extend this Feast Day for a few more days with beloved friends and family causing my discomfort? Is it that I have not explored and lived the season of Advent as a Catholic because I am too busy being in the next moment and not in the present? What has prevented me from reading Christmas stories and poetry, from listening to that wondrous music only glimpsed upon by commercial radio? Every year, we are led to this December 25th celebration of giving and getting the material, (which never fully, truly, satisfies), that inevitably we may come to that emotional letdown only slightly relieved with the celebration of the New Year, focusing on food, alcohol and more escapism from our human frailty. I have not been using the weapons at my disposal – from the off button on the TV remote, to prayers, mass, literature – great and small, wonderful, non-commercial art and music, necessary to my fulfillment.

There are many ways to grow during this season, a glorious feast that should not end until the Epiphany.

“Though we love Christmas for the traditions that it entails, we have forgotten one of the most important traditions. For several centuries people waited until Christmas to celebrate Christmas. And then they celebrated it for twelve days. There was a fast leading up to the feast, and then there were many days of feasting.” –G.K. Chesterton

Our Responsibility

“Unto us a Savior is born. There has never been better news and never a better reason to celebrate.”  –G.K. Chesterton

There is a need and obligation to future generations to rise above the commercial and celebrate Christmas religiously, soulfully and joyfully. Religiously with discipline reading, mass, prayers. Soulfully, sorrowfully by the contradictions of His life Christmas presents. The innocence of a child, born in a dirty cave, that we know will end by humiliating death of this innocent, incarnated man; the blood of birth to the blood of the last sacrifice, the bloodletting on the cross. Born and welcomed by outcasts, the shepherds and died with outcasts on both sides of the cross. Birth and death, both virtually unnoticed, inglorious, witnessed by few, the faithful. Finally, joyfully, for it is a birth and this birth is the beginning of redemption for all – faith and fate foretold by the Jewish prophets of the Old Testament fulfilled on Easter Sunday.

Christmas Mourning

On Christmas Day I weep
Good Friday to rejoice.
I watch the Child asleep
Does He half dream the choice
The Man must make and keep?

At Christmastime I sigh
For my Good Friday hope.
Outflung the Child’s arms lie
To span in their brief scope
The death the Man must die.

 Come Christmastime, I groan
To hear Good Friday’s pealing.
The Man, racked to the bone,
Has made His hurt my healing,
Has made my ache His own.

 Slay me, pierced to the core
With Christmas penitence
So I who, new-born, soar
To that Child’s innocence,
May wound the Man no more.
-Vassar Miller

The Possibility

It really is the Word Made Flesh. Just imagine – spirituality needs imagination, not in the sense in fantasy and science fiction, but by opening the mind to a greater world of intense possibilities – our lives/souls may not exist on a vertical line of time constraints, but of profound dimensions and great depth. Our Jewish heritage should be honored, praised and studied.  The Immaculate Conception and Virgin Birth must be embraced leading to a celebration to come after 33 years of trials and sacrifice. Have we created a tragedy that is Christmas? Have we done a disservice to our children?

“The small child of Bethlehem, the unknown young man of Nazareth, the rejected preacher, the naked man on the cross, he asks for my full attention. The work of our salvation takes place in the midst of a world that continues to shout, scream, and overwhelm us with its claims and promises. But the promise is hidden in the shoot that sprouts from the stump, a shoot that hardly anyone notices.”  Henri Nouwen.

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