“So powerful is the appropriation of Christmas as
the expression of market capitalism that it is much easier to opt out of
religion than out of the American Christmas."
These words recorded by Professor Donald Heinz, Professor of
Religion at California
State University
in his book on Christmas published in 2010, speak directly to the outcome of
the modern attitudes toward Christmas in the general population. It would seem
that society is drifting away from the original meaning of this wonderful
season set aside for all true Christians to rejoice at the birth of the only
son of God Almighty, Jesus Christ the
Savior, and for the glad tidings of hope and celebration he brought to all
who believed. This was so beautifully contained in the message of the prophet
Isaiah 40:9:
“You who bring
good tidings to Jerusalem,
Lift up your voice with a shout, lift it up and do
not be afraid; Say to the towns of Judah: "Here is your God!”
Unfortunately for all of us who care,
Christmas in these days, is becoming increasingly buried by the rising tide of rampant commercialization and secularization.
It is rapidly losing whatever religious meaning it ever had, and instead, is
becoming just one more excuse for corporations to sell more things and make
more profit. So much so that massive traffic jams, packed shopping malls, and
lines stretching around the block as well as endless hours searching the
internet, have become hallmarks of the holiday season. Even uglier, are the
“special sales” used to herald the start of season that are beginning earlier
and earlier and regularly lead to pandemonium and chaos. All of this
deliberately designed by the corporations, banks and finance companies to
convince us to spend more and more, and owe more and more. All of which taking place in total antagonism to the beauty, the glory and the solemnity of
this very special season.
For me however, as I grow older, Christmas is the
time for my family, my friends and myself to come together to give
thanks to, and to express our belief in Almighty God, and to remember his
promises to us. The powerful feeling of family is never any stronger than at
midnight of Christmas-eve when, gathered with all my family, we welcome,
together with all the faithful of the Christian world, the glad and glorious
tidings of the birth of our Lord. And we gratefully come together and share the
joy and love of one another. It is also an opportunity for us all to take the
time and reflect upon the message of the season to all mankind, Christian and
non-Christian alike, as announced by the angels to the shepherds on that
fateful night in Luke
2:14:
“Glory
to God in the highest,
And
on earth, peace and good will toward men.”
Unfortunately, in the same way we have destroyed
this opportunity by distorting and commercializing Christmas, we have also
successfully buried this beautiful command from God of “Peace on earth and Good will to all men” into the mud of
exploitation. As we enter this season, instead of peace on earth, we have wars raging in every corner of the world among
every nation and even among the people within the nations. And instead of goodwill to all men, we are spending all
our time and energy in persuading anyone who is foolish enough to listen, that
other people who look different, or dress different, or speak different or pray
different are our enemies and ought not be trusted.
In fact to our utter shame, it would
appear that peace is the most elusive commodity in the whole world. So too are good,
honest leaders, irrespective of whether we elected them or otherwise. We grant
the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize to one of our Presidents and he promptly
increases the size and extent of the war in Afghanistan. We are spending far,
far more money on building greater and greater weapons and higher and higher
walls than we are feeding and housing our neighbors in need. We have clearly
not learnt any lessons from the past wars and conflicts, nor do we seem to give
more than lip service to the mounting death toll, and worse still, the mounting
numbers of young men and women whose horrendous injuries are an abomination to
humanity. --- And we do this all, in the
name of freedom and democracy!
And as to honoring all good men; few of us have taken the time to understand
its true meaning. We appear to prefer the most successful, the most notorious and the most aggressive
people as the ones deserving the recognition. We happily and willingly appoint
a man of very questionable ethics and morals as the leader, elect men of proven
amorality to the government and to be leaders of society, and people of equally
questionable character in sports and entertainment, showering them with our
money and adoration. Yet we ignore the millions of people who go from one day
to another not knowing if food is available to feed their children, or money to
pay for rent or for medical care.
Even worse than this, is the lopsided
attitude of our governments towards the care and support of society. We
unhesitatingly spend billions of dollars to support the greedy incompetence of
our financial leaders, including handsomely rewarding them with large bonuses
for destroying the world’s economies. Yet we do not raise a finger to help the
increasing pool of our friends and neighbors forced into failure and bankruptcy,
unable to feed or offer good medical care to themselves and their families. Where in God’s name, is the goodwill toward
men?
So as we enter this season of
Christmas, a season chosen by God to remind us of our own responsibility
towards our brothers and our neighbors let us all commit to live by his words.
That we will all strive, by word and by deed, to ensure peace on earth, and do whatever and whenever we can, all that we
are capable of doing to restoring good
will toward men.
W. T. Ellis, a member of the American House of Representatives
in the early 20th century, in lamenting the lack of interest that
existed in the acceptance of Christmas at that time, made this observation:
“It is Christmas in the heart, that puts Christmas
in the air.”
This indeed is the truest statement ever made.
Until we are able to restore the original message and intent of Christmas in
our hearts and in our minds, we will be condemned to increasing waves of
secularism and commercialism that will continue to drown everything else.
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