The Good Child. Christmas 2011

There are a lot of annoying and genuinely disturbing things about the Advent/Christmas season in the secular world today. There's a lot of materialism and merchants put people under a huge amount of pressure to spend much more than they can afford. Political correctness is rampant and many stores and institutions now refuse to use the word 'Christmas' at all. Radio stations and stores start playing Christmas music in November and by the time Christmas comes, you feel like if you hear, “Have a Holly Jolly Christmas” one more time you'll throw something. All the business promotions make a person feel like Christmas should be so peaceful, warm, positive and fun. Song lyrics and advertising images emphasize the joy and comfort of coming home to family which causes a disconnect in the hearts of many because 'home and family' to them has always meant discord and pain – and Christmas doesn't change that at all. Once you start seeing the all the hype, materialism, pain and empty promises, it's easy to feel like the spirituality of Christmas is in danger of being completely lost.

So, as we move through these last few days of Advent let's turn our focus to something that is beautiful and astounding. Have you ever realized that no other faith has a religious celebration that has affected the world the way the birth of Christ has done and still does? Certainly, the secular world goes to a lot of effort to subvert the real meaning of Christmas but in spite of its best efforts, it fails. It fails because “bonum diffusivum sui” which means, “It is the nature of goodness to diffuse itself.” When Jesus was born, goodness and light took up residence in the world and, as John 1:5 says, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” It still hasn't. Never will.

No matter how the world tries to cash in on the Christmas season and no matter how much those who are politically correct try to deflect attention away from the name of Christ or from the reason we celebrate, light emitting goodness saturates the whole season. This is God's glow of goodness because good cannot exist outside of him. And at Christmas it seems like he is especially exuberant in the diffusion of his goodness. Every act of giving whether it's based in Christian values or not comes from the goodness of God and every person, company or institution that gives in any way is an instrument of God whether they know it or not. It's as if the light of Christ's birth cannot be overcome no matter how much the secular world shies away from acknowledging it.

When I listen to the radio, watch T.V., read the newspapers and scan the internet, I am boggled by the efforts of so many to minister to the poor during Advent and Christmas. There are empty stocking funds, penny drives, charity concerts and a multitude of Christmas meals being offered to those who can't afford one. And food bank drives! Two radio stations in our city had a contest to see which station could get the most food collected. A local business invited people to come by with food and gift items and try to fill up the back of a trailer truck. Even our municipal garbage collectors are having a food drive. Individuals are doing random acts of great kindness. People volunteer to stand outside in the cold to ring bells and collect money for the poor and everyone generously tips coins into the kettle on their way past.

We have a choice. We can look at the negative. We can cry foul because we feel like Jesus is being left out. We can be cynical about a corporation's motivations in providing a meal or collecting items for the food bank. We can shake our heads at how Santa is better known than Christ. We can focus on the darkness. Or we can start seeing that when a holy infant was born into the world, the world lost the battle against the light. The Light could not and cannot be kept down. Christmas could be outlawed completely and the light would still shine. Goodness would still come bubbling up through the cracks because darkness cannot overcome the light.

“And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)

Rejoice, people of God! There is good news of great joy for all of you: to you is born this day a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord. The world will try to shut him up. It will nail him to a cross. It will twist his words and subvert his truths. It will try to make money off of him. It will attempt to replace him, negate him, eliminate him and make him into a myth.

But the world cannot do it. It is fighting a losing battle. So, lift up your hearts, seek the face of the infant in every act of goodness and generosity you come across. Soon you will see him everywhere and you will know: The child has won.

Because you just can't keep a good God down.

A blessed, holy and Good Christmas to you all and I also wish you a full, gracious and peaceful celebration of Mary, the Mother of God on New Years. I will be taking a bit of a 'blog break' for that week.