The Problem With Secular Christmas

The Problem With Secular Christmas

I haven't been Catholic for terribly long. Well before I was received into the Church at the Easter Vigil in 2014 I had grown to hate the way Christmas is celebrated. Even before I came to believe in God I hated Christmas celebrations. Why did I feel this way? For the same reason that I hated every secular expression of Christian heritage in the West: the celebration had become distorted and separated from the traditions, divorced from its values, and turned into something two dimensional.

I understand the symbolism of giving gifts to those we love on Christmas. We are to see each other as Christ, and we mimic the actions of the Three Magi by giving gifts. To be sure, the gifts they gave were expensive as well, with each having deep symbolism to the life and death of Christ. Those gifts represent Christ's kingship and His mission on Earth.

But Christmas has become separated from living and loving in a Christ-like manner. To be sure, we see stories every year of selfless acts of charity that go viral on social media and covered in the nightly news. Those people who do charitable works seem to understand the meaning of Christmas, though charitable acting isn't the only meaning of Christmas. But they understand, better than most of us probably do. It's astounding when these charitable souls are non-believers, putting those of us who celebrate and follow Christ to shame.

To understand what the meaning of Christmas is we need to understand Christmas. Christ loved man so much that he left the glory of the Kingdom to come to Earth in the form of a baby born to homeless parents in squalid conditions. He came in the most vulnerable condition, born in a condition that should have been understood in universal terms as bearing innocents, though in those days, like in ours, the dignity and priceless value of the life of a baby was rejected in many quarters. Christ came to live among regular people, born to a perpetually virgin woman and cared for (a time at any rate) by a devout, elderly laborer. The King came to dwell among us, and he chose those with so little that they had not even a dwelling for Him to be born in.

His mission? To give everything so that we might be free from our own worst desires. Among these desires are selfishness, hedonism, and turning the other cheek from our neighbor and raising our fists to those who offend us. We are ruled by our flesh and by our pride. We see this in secular celebrations of Christmas, with the expert marketers telling us that our worth is measured in the size of the pile of gadgets and plastic under the tree. We believe this to such a degree that some trample their neighbor on the aptly named Black Friday so they can get one of the limited stock of the latest hot toy or gadget, which will honestly be forgotten by the recipient within a relatively short time after receiving it.

I sound cynical. Perhaps I am. For me, the summit of Christmas celebration is the Christmas Mass, either at the Vigil on Christmas Eve (the night that Mary and Joseph desperately searched for lodging), or on the morning that we celebrate His birth. Pope Francis spoke about the true meaning of Christmas at the Christmas Eve Vigil Mass he celebrated in Vatican City last night, saying “In a society so often intoxicated by consumerism and hedonism, wealth and extravagance, appearances and narcissism, this Child calls us to act soberly, in other words, in a way that is simple, balanced, consistent, capable of seeing and doing what is essential,” the Pope said, according to Vatican Radio. This message is often lost on us because our pride is so embroiled in having to provide the proper gifts in kind and amount that we lose sight of the simple fact that Christmas is about Christ and His love for us.

When people complain about a war on Christmas being waged by the secular culture I'm always amused. The War on Christmas was fought and won long ago by the secular culture. One need look no further than the behavior of Christians who lose sight of Christ at the holidays for that. If evidence is what you seek then pay attention to ads on television that use church music....and notice that the only lyrics you hear are the least religious in the song, with no mention of His holy name. Why? Because the war on Christmas was won long ago by the secular culture. Now the reason for the season is to balance checkbooks and ledgers for retailers. One wonders how many of the people who participate in marketing Christmas sales to all of us are Christians, and how many of them have been complicit in the stripping of Christ from Christmas.

This isn't to say that we shouldn't buy gifts from family and friends on Christmas. I challenge everyone, including and especially myself, to remember what Christmas is really about as we move into the New Year. Can you carry that sense of charity forward? If it helps, in the Catholic Church we celebrate Christmas for several weeks after December 25^th, for the birth of our Lord can only adequately be celebrated in a season, not a day. Every Mass attended between now and the end of the Christmas season should remind us to carry that message in our hearts so that we may love our neighbor, especially those most vulnerable, everyday.