I am pleased to be able to share a guest post from my good friend Eric F.
Much has been made over the years of the true meaning of Christmas. Like most things today, we tend to say that Christmas should mean different things to everyone and that the question of its true meaning is fundamentally misguided. Perhaps this modern sentiment can be best summarized by a line in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol in which Ebenezer Scrooge uses an appeal to subjectivity to dismiss his nephew’s goodwill by bluntly stating “keep Christmas in your own way, and let me keep it in mine”. Having lost the sense of what the objective meaning of Christmas really is, advertisements and Hallmark movies have diluted Christmas down to just being about the good fellowship of friends and family. While it must be emphasized with great care that there is nothing wrong with a Christmas spent with friends and family as this is undoubtedly valuable, what if Christmas is calling us to something deeper? What if Christmas is about much more than simply spending time with kith and kin? Perhaps we need the real meaning of Christmas more than ever.
Christmas is about following Christ’s example by making yourself into a gift for those who would be easier to ignore or to hide from -this includes, but is by no means limited to, the woman who has no home and sits on the side of street on your way to work, the man who is your staunchest ideological opponent, the teenager who has made some poor choices, or even your next door neighbour with whom you’ve had a falling out with over some silly suburban squabble. To understand what is meant by making yourself into a gift, it is necessary to appreciate what Christians see in Christmas beyond the imagery of a little baby in a manger surrounded by animals because ultimately Christmas is the celebration of the historical event of the birth of Jesus Christ (the one who made Himself into a gift par excellence).
The Christian tradition emphasizes that humanity is made for a deep and personal relationship with God because God is Goodness, Beauty, Truth, and Love Itself. However, it is quite plain to see that each of us have in various ways turned away from God because we do not always act perfectly in regards to seeking the good, the true, and the beautiful, but rather instead of working for and desiring the good for others (which is the definition of love), we turn inwards and put our wants at the centre of our lives. In effect, we are worshiping the idol of the self by making the pursuit of money, power, pleasure, or honour into our top priority. By placing something other than Goodness Itself at the centre of our lives, our desires, relationships, families, and societies get off-kilter, and we become unhappy and unsatisfied with ourselves at the deepest level of our being. Because of this, we alienate ourselves from God and even make God our enemy at times.
The crux of the issue according to the Christian tradition is that this is a situation that we could not fix on our own. God is infinitely good and we are not. The difference between any finite amount and the infinite is still effectively infinite. Thus, God came to us. St. Paul explains in his letter to the Romans that “while we were enemies [with God], we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son” (Romans 5:10).
Omnipotence freely chose to experience weakness and poverty without any benefit for Himself. He made Himself into a gift for us to reconcile us and restore us to that life giving relationship with Goodness, Beauty, and Truth Itself. This is the true meaning of Christmas. Can we be reconciled with those whom we are estranged from? Can we serve those who can’t do a thing to help us or return the favour? Are we willing to make ourselves into a gift for people who probably won’t appreciate us? This can be as simple as offering a smile to someone you’d rather avoid, having a difficult conversation with someone, or perhaps shovelling the snow for your elderly neighbour.
In our polarized and hyper-individualistic world, we need to live Christmas more than ever so that we can begin to bridge the gaps that have been growing between us. Spending time with our friends and family is wonderful, but it is not nearly enough for ourselves or for the people around us. Before we worry about a merry Christmas, let us simply start by having a Christmas because the merriment will follow only after we learn how to live a real Christmas. How can you make yourself into a gift for someone you’d rather avoid this season?
Did you find what Eric wrote to be interesting, thought-provoking or anything else, and want to let him know? You can contact me, and I'll forward your words to him.