Jesus Christ, the center of every Christmas activity
Not long from now, Christmas day will be coming. And along with it are fireworks, food, drinks, hanging out with friends, mall hopping, exchanging of gifts, parties here and there. We’ll be panting around a lot with all these merrymaking. But even before I wrote this post and put this up on publish, telling you about it might just be too late a news. The fact is, it’s happening right before us now.
But come to think of it, what is Christmas without Christ, a merrymaking without even acknowledging the very center of this season? Somehow, the celebration is cast in the name of Christmas because of the occasion falling on December. However, we get ourselves busied with a lot of details while missing the root. And that root is Christ, the source and very essence of the celebration itself.
Yet no one keeps attention. Things get so secularized, too commercialized while the essence has been effaced. The meaning is lost in the frantic scampering over details which leads us to ask: can there be Christmas without Christ? If one does something without fully understanding the source from where one’s action should be originating from, then one could be led astray into celebrating Christmas without Christ.
Parties here and there, go for it this December. But better not make it a Christmas party if we can’t even acknowledge the Christ in the CHRISTmas. Without Christ, a Christmas party is just another party with (here we go again) a lot of food, laughter, exchanging of gifts, games while Christmas trees and all other decors are placed everywhere in the area. Not much difference with parties that have lots of spooky and frightening decors around!
A video clip from the Knights of Columbus
Yes, that’s the trend of Christmas-ing these days. It has become a whole big DECOR thing. And it ends up just being one. Put out the food, hang the DECOR, whew! Christmas already. Exchange gifts, put on the DECOR, alas! its Christmas. Take out the fireworks, put on a Christmas song at the background, oh wow! Christmas. Gather for a countdown to Christmas — ten, nine, eight… two, one! Puff! After all these, the merrymaking and frenzy just die down.
In all these, baby Jesus Christ would just ask us: where am I in all these? Sad to say, he’s fast becoming one of the DECORS. When the buzz of merrymaking finally comes to a halt, nothing has changed in our person. The Spirit of Christ has not come into our lives because we haven’t let him in in the first place. We’re rather busy with a lot of incidentals (worrying what kind of wrapper to wrap that gift, money to buy that party food, what decors to put on, etc.).
Looking at it in another way, the Christmas that we’ve known by these days has changed a lot which eventually has altered the true values of Christmas and the true source of the Christmas spirit. Nothing wrong with wrapping a million gifts, nothing wrong with exchanging gifts either but to whom these acts are for and of what source these acts originate have not been thought of. The gift represents an even deeper fact, that of ourselves and our readiness to give ourselves to others as this is the essence of the Christ spirit. Exchanging of gifts and gift giving then must bubble up from this source. And so are the rest of the activities that we do this yuletide season.
Remember, Christmas without Christ is just -mas, a word devoid of meaning. Or, you might prefer placing anything before that word which leads you anywhere but the essential. Equally, our Christmas activities done outside of the source, that is Christ, will just be a hankering for another gift, a shopping-till-you-drop mania, a festivity of food and drinks galore mixed with boisterous laughter. A busy-ness for its own sake while baby Christ is knocking outside the door of our hearts, asking to be let in.
