Christmas is worth all the effort

I do, however, believe all the effort is worth it. The days of preparation to have a brief time of a shared meal, exchanging of gifts, and a game or two (anything but Monopoly). For nearly 1700 years Christians have celebrated the birth of Jesus. It took nearly four centuries for a person’s birthday to gain the same importance as the day of their baptism or death. From that day to this we have been adding and subtracting practices and traditions — sacred and secular.

Christmas is, like the rest of our lives, a little messy and important enough to argue over from time to time. With that in mind, I would like to share a few random quotes for your entertainment and reflection. A warning concerning the last quote — Chesterton was not serious, but he would say that he was, only not the way we think.

“He was created of a mother whom He created. He was carried by hands that He formed. He cried in the manger in wordless infancy, He the Word, without whom all human eloquence is mute.” Augustine of Hippo, Homily on the Nativity.

“Our Savior, dearly-beloved, was born today: let us be glad. For there is no proper place for sadness, when we keep the birthday of the Life, which destroys the fear of mortality and brings to us the joy of promised eternity. No one is kept from sharing in this happiness. There is for all one common measure of joy, because as our Lord the destroyer of sin and death finds none free from charge, so is He come to free us all.” Leo the Great, On the Feast of the Nativity, I.

“The idea that there’s a force of love and logic behind the universe is overwhelming to start with, if you believe it. Actually, maybe even far-fetched to start with, but the idea that that same love and logic would choose to describe itself as a baby born in straw and poverty is genius, and brings me to my knees, literally. To me, as a poet, I am just in awe of that. It makes some sort of poetic sense. It’s the thing that makes me a believer, though it didn’t dawn on me for many years.” Paul Hewson, U2 (a.k.a. Bono)

“Christmas is like candy; it slowly melts in your mouth sweetening every taste bud, making you wish it could last forever.” — Richelle E. Goodrich, Young Adult Author.

“It gives on the whole much more pain than pleasure. You have only to stay over Christmas with a family who seriously try to ‘keep’ it (in its. . . commercial aspect) to see that the thing is a nightmare. Long before December 25th everyone is worn out — physically worn out by weeks of daily struggle in overcrowded shops, mentally worn out by the effort to remember all the right recipients and to think out suitable gifts for them. They are in no trim for merry-making; much less . . . to take part in a religious act. They look far more as if there had been a long illness in the house.” C. S. Lewis from a short essay, What Christmas Means to Me.

“There is no more dangerous or disgusting habit than that of celebrating Christmas before it comes, as I am doing in this article. It is the very essence of a festival that it breaks upon one brilliantly and abruptly, that at one moment the great day is not and the next moment the great day is. Up to a certain specific instant you are feeling ordinary and sad; for it is only Wednesday. At the next moment your heart leaps up and your soul and body dance together like lovers; for in one burst and blaze it has become Thursday. I am assuming (of course) that you are a worshipper of Thor, and that you celebrate his day once a week, possibly with human sacrifice.” G. K Chesterton, “Christmas” in All Things Considered.

Have a blessed Season of Advent.