There are two major threats to Christmas each year: the marketplace and the state.
The marketplace is a threat because it takes everything beautiful, banalizes it, mass produces it and puts a price tag on it. It changes the lovely tradition of gift-giving from a participation in the incarnational generosity of God into a materialistic feeding frenzy.
Today’s ubiquitous state is a threat because Caesar will not tolerate rival gods. As the state gets bigger, it gets more aggressive in its secularizing, pulling society’s institutions into its cult, insisting there is no other view but the state’s that needs be taken seriously, consequently banning Christmas in schools, libraries, courthouses, legislatures and public spaces.
In a poetic way, this has been the problem faced by Christmas from the beginning. The popular interpretation of the inn turning away the Holy Family suggests a crowded marketplace with no room for Christ. And from the beginning, the state in the person of King Herod sought to kill the Christ Child rather than acknowledge a rival authority.
A society dominated by profit-hungry Big Business on the one hand and control-freak Big Government on the other leaves little room for the parts of our souls that make us human. Freedom comes to mean consumer choice. Happiness comes to mean diversion. Human community comes to mean “don’t offend me.”
Blessed Pope John Paul II noticed how bleak it had gotten:
“The individual today is often suffocated between two poles represented by the state and the marketplace. At times it seems as though he exists only as a producer and consumer of goods or as an object of state administration. People lose sight of the fact that life in society has neither the market nor the state as its final purpose.”
But if Christmas is a victim of the mistake we make about the market and the state, it is also a way out.
The inn crowded him out, but Christ found a better way. Herod systematically tried to kill him — but Jesus became much bigger than Herod.
The same can happen today. We can deny the market and state control of the four chief joys of Christmas: receiving gifts, giving gifts, family gatherings and the life of Christ.
Receiving Gifts. We might as well admit it: Receiving gifts is one of the chief joys of Christmas. But it is also the joy that most easily turns to self-seeking. It needn’t.
I’ve always been struck by the way Pope John Paul II described state and market attempts to control St. Nicholas.
“As children, we all waited for St. Nicholas to bring us presents. The communists wanted to deprive him of his sanctity, so they invented Grandfather Frost. Unfortunately, in the West, Nicholas has now become popular in the context of consumerism” as Santa Claus.
For John Paul, St. Nicholas thwarted these attempts. “I felt a certain veneration toward this saint who unselfishly lavished gifts upon the people,” he said.
We, too, should make it clear to our children that receiving gifts is not their due as Americans, but their privilege as poor souls who beg everything from God —and that overflowing gifts under the Christmas tree is just an icon of our everyday life, where we receive everything from God.
Giving Gifts. Everyone says, “It’s better to give than to receive,” and any dad knows that it’s always more exciting to watch his son open his Buzz Lightyear than it is to open his own new tie.
The longer I live, the more convinced I am that the secret of life is this: When we grab for personal happiness without a thought for others, we may divert ourselves occasionally, but we make ourselves fundamentally sad. Only when we sacrifice our own desires to make others happy do we become happy ourselves.
That’s the kind of happiness the “Buy me!” market and the “Give me!” state thwart. But Christmas giving can become a habit, the habit of love.
Family Gatherings. Often, the most stressful and dreaded parts of Christmas are family get-togethers. But if you think back over your greatest Christmas memories, they are much more likely to be about people than about things: gathering around the piano to sing; decorating the tree as the fireplace crackles; kneeling by your family at midnight Mass.
John Paul says that in the face of the enormous state and market, only “communities of persons” and especially the family “prevent society from becoming an anonymous and impersonal mass, as unfortunately often happens today.”
The best way to fight back against the state and the market is to strengthen the communities that are the real force for culture: Get your family together to sing; gather whoever in the neighborhood is brave enough, and go caroling.
The Life of Christ. The last joy of Christmas is the life of Christ. The power of the simply-told Gospel story is such that it has captivated generations. No Christmas story has ever outdone it, and the best Christmas stories acknowledge that and bow before it, from A Charlie Brown Christmas to the tale of the Little Drummer Boy.
The market and the state are the biggest threat to the Christmas. But this story — the story of God breaking into human relationships and insisting on living there — is the biggest threat to the exaggerated place the state and market have taken in our lives.
By celebrating Christmas joy, we will ensure that the true meaning of Christmas — not threats to it — prevails.
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I think what you say about the threat of the marketplace - consumerism and materialism is quite true.
I think your second paragraph about “As the state gets bigger, it gets more aggressive in its secularizing ... ” is incorrect - perhaps nonsense influenced by the Tea Party.
It is the US Constitution (specifically interpretations of the Church-State separation) which is to blame for “banning Christmas” regardless of the size of “The State” in the US over the years.
Most European countries do not have this rigid Church-State separation and Cribs are in the public square. eg Birmingham in England has a German-themed Christmas market. It has a Crib in a public square. The crib supplied by the City of Frankfurt (ie taxpayers’ money).
Birmingham City Art Gallery has a Nativity Trail, with a glossy leaflet pointing out the Christmas story in high visual art.
http://www.birminghamdiocese.org.uk/2012/12/archbishop-longley-commends-the-2012-nativity-trail-at-birmingham-museum-art-gallery/
In the above picture note the slogan “Make time for things that matter” under the Crib next to the city council logo.
“Kurt Stroscher – Director, Event Organisation and Marketing, City of Frankfurt said: In Germany the celebration of Christmas is intrinsically linked to its religious origins – the birth of Jesus Christ. Just as cribs underneath the Christmas tree in German homes are traditional so are nativity scenes at Christmas Markets. As Birmingham’s Frankfurt Christmas Market is authentic, it was very important to me to have a nativity scene here as well.”
http://birminghamnewsroom.com/2011/11/bishops-visit-nativity-in-birmingham/
Note that the role of the State is much bigger in England and Germany eg socialized medicine. Also the proportion of those who identify as Christian is lower than the US, yet they can have Cribs in the public square - publicly-funded.
Tom, You hit the nail on the head. As a new Catholic who happens to be politically conservative, this last election opened my eyes to many things. I don’t feel hopeless but do increasingly recognize how even my preferred conservative government seems to worship a godless existence.
The exact date of Christ’s birth is not known. The early Christians did NOT celebrate His birth, because they considered the celebration of anyone’s birth to be a pagan custom. The first mention of the observance of Christ’s birthday appears about A.D. 200. For many years, several dates were used. December 25 was first mentioned in 336.
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For many years, people observed Christmas as a religious festival only. But they GRADUALLY ADOPTED MORE AND MORE CUSTOMS UNRELATED TO THE CHURCH. Most of the customs originated in cultures that existed before Christianity….In 1643, the Puritans, who regarded such celebrations as pagan, outlawed the observance of Christmas in England. Colonists in New England followed the English laws and also outlawed Christmas. But immigrants to the New World brought Christmas customs from many lands and the old festivities where soon restored.
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All of the popular customs and traditions surrounding Christmas actually were celebrated at pagan mid-winter festivals thousands of years before the Messiah was born. The custom of burning the Yule log began with the ancient Scandinavians, who once a year burned a huge log in honor of their god Thor. After the Scandinavians became Christians, they made the Yule log an important part of their Christmas ceremonies.
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The “sun-god” in ancient Egypt was Osiris. The round disk of the Egyptian “mass” symbolized the sun, and was an offering symbolizing the sun-god. He was considered the life and nourishment of the souls of men!
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The “Christ-mass” therefore is nothing more than the celebration of the birth of the “sun-god” himself, the False Messiah, the False “Saviour” of the world, and the “mass” itself also represents the offering or “cakes” made to the queen of heaven, the “Mother” of the pagan Saviour, the “unbloody sacrifice”! Again, “Christ-mass” is proved to be PAGAN to the core!
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It is a fact that December 25 was celebrated for thousands of years before the birth of the Messiah as the birth day of an ancient pagan god—THE SUN GOD!
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Truly, the whole world has been deceived by Satan the devil and his clever masquerades and machinations (Rev. 12:9).
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YEHOVAH God Almighty thunders: “Wherefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Are ye POLLUTED after the manner of your fathers? and commit ye !@#$% after the manner of THEIR ABOMINATIONS?...ye POLLUTE yourselves with all your IDOLS, even unto this day….But as for you, O house of Israel, thus saith the Lord GOD: Go ye, serve ye every one his idols, and hereafter also, if ye will not hearken unto me: but POLLUTE YE MY HOLY NAME NO MORE with your gifts, and with your idols” (Ezek. 20:30-39).
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The very name “Christmas,” combining the holy name of Christ with the pagan mass, POLLUTES and PROFANES YEHOVAH’s holy name! The celebration of these ancient pagan festivals, calling them “Christian,” is an abomination in the sight of YEHOVAH God! YEHOVAH will not accept such pagan, superstitious worship!
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Yeshua the Messiah said to his disciples, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will KNOW THE TRUTH, and the truth will set you FREE”—free from the shackles of error, superstition, mythology, and pagan deception! (John 8:32, NIV).
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Christmas is pagan. There is no doubt about it. The question is: What are you going to do about it? May YEHOVAH God help you to make the right decision, so you can inherit eternal life, and reign with the saints forever (Rev. 2:26-27; 5:10; 20:4).
In the US, Christmas and religious freedom are under a long term attack, which has flared up significantly in the past couple of years. The trend in the US has also been for the government to get bigger at all levels. There are periodic, and usually short-lived or symbolic, exceptions but by seemingly any measure (such as budget size, physical “footprint,” regulatory burden, headcount), government has increased in size and scope. It’s hard to believe it’s a coincidence that has happened along with the increasing threat to religion. (A temporary exception seems to be how liberals fall all over themselves to support the building of mosques and muslim communities.)
I think you have missed a third threat to the celebration of the Birth or our Savior the Son of God and this third threat is just as powerful and destructive as the two you mention. This third threat comes from the Pharisees and their high priests of today and their powerful influence on the rest of the world. This threat has always been there and continues to be as strong as always.
@Jay Keyser
Post hoc ergo propter hoc. Look it up.
Brummie,
It is NOT the Constitution; but rather the interpretations. The Constitution prohibits the government from establishing a “State Religion”. It does not prohibit the people to their right to the free excersize of religion.
Secular zealots have purposely mis-interpreted and perverted the Constitution to the point that they feel that whenever religion appears in the public square, that is a de fact endorsement by the State.
It is not.
However, they are offended by the free excersize of religion; and they feel that somehow it is the government’s responsibility that they not be offended.
The day, the hour, indeed, the moment to celebrate the birth of our Redeemer, Jesus, is always; in every here and now. That a day has been set aside to have a public acknowedgement of the miracle in our hearts is for sharing the good news, in celebration, adoration, thanksgiving, and love of God. Merry Christmas, family!
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