Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas. It is less seldom spoken at this time of year. Replaced by a more politic Happy Holidays, which includes us all in a soft blanket of inclusiveness, communicating good wishes, if just a simple, shallow bonhomie to anyone. We are not related any more. We are simple acquaintances. Merry Christmas might entail a common belief, a faithful commitment, but there is some resolution contained therein, even when we take the time to pass its peace through our lips to one another. Merry Christmas. Soft and subtle, antique and old-fashioned. Merry, who uses merry at any other time of the year? Where is its meaning in this modern world? Christmas? A mass for Christ? Do we gather together in the sanctuary of our churches and acknowledge the great gift of salvation found in a stable? If we truly believe that message, perhaps the passing of a 'Merry Christmas' is too subtle and too small a wish. We should greet each other with something more like 'He is risen. He is risen indeed." as at Easter. The thought should thunder and clap as we celebrate a gift personal, yet offered universally. We should acknowledge the offering of reconciliation with the Creator and Master of the Universe with celebration, song and fireworks.

But in the darkness of December, finding sanctuary in our homes and the homes of our families, we gather together and pass an old, old wish to one another. A wish which is so often divorced from our real lives in this world, that it seems silly or shallow, but should remain a thunderous affirmation acknowledged by others. Be merry, for the Mass of the Christ child is here. Let us stop and put away the gifts and the turkey and the cookies and candy and understand the gravity of that affirmation. That we, who live so far from the ultimate power of the entire universe, cut off from him by our unwillingness to claim our kinship connection, are offered the reconciliation for which we should kneel and fervently pray in solitude and in union with each other, that the holy God/Father of the world has condescended to come to earth and offer his hand to us. Just like Michelangelo's painting of God and the old man, Adam. Reaching out to one another, claiming kin.

Brotherhood with men. Kinship with God, our Father. Amen.

The celebration of the a new light in the darkness of spiritual nightfall.