Christmas Message

Recently I was driving in my car and I heard on the radio the song Santa Claus is Coming to Town sung by Bruce Springsteen. Some of the lyrics go like this:

You better watch out
You better not cry
You better not pout
I'm telling you why
Santa Claus is coming to town

He's making a list,
He's checking it twice,
He's gonna find out who's naughty or nice
Santa Claus is coming to town

He sees you when you're sleeping
And he knows when you're awake
He knows if you've been bad or good
So be good for goodness sake

As jolly as the music may be the lyrics are opposed to the Christian idea of Christmas. The inspiration for Santa Claus, Saint Nicholas, was famous for giving gifts to the poor and undeserving anonymously. The Gospel speaks of God as the best of fathers: “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Mtt 7: 10-11) Not only that, he sends his gifts on people regardless of their worthiness: “... for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” (Mtt 5: 45)

The coming of Christ is all about grace – the undeserved kindness of God: “But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved – and raised up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that  in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God – not the result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Eph. 2: 4-9)

Mass at Christmas gives us an opportunity to name grace at work in our lives and to give thanks for it. The primary place for this is in our families which are gifts from God since we do not choose them and yet, whether linked by blood ties or not, we feel profound love, nostalgia and gratitude at this time. In fact, many people who do not share in the Christian faith, would say that Christmas, for them, is all about family. Isn’t it amazing how these seemingly random collections of human beings are a cause for such deeply felt emotions?

We can also think of the grace we have experienced through our church family especially if we  are without relatives close to us at this time. In fact, we can be brought to know, in a very special way, how we are called to be instruments of grace to others and a dwelling place for the divine: “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined together spiritually into the dwelling place of God” (Eph. 2: 19-22)

Thanks to Christ we all belong and we all matter. 

Happy Christmas everyone!