Finally had the time to sit back, slow down and collect my thoughts about the Christmas that was.
Today on the feast of Mary Mother of God -the theotokos- it is imperative and spiritually soothing to sit back and visit the Christmas event in retrospect. Retrospect was the main theme of the Gospel today. “Mary kept all these things in her heart.” (Luke 2:18). It meant, Mary recollected all the events and made meaning out of them. This detail might have been essential for the Gospel author because like the rest of us, Mary might have lost to the Christmas marvel which she did not only see as a mere observer but an active important collaborator.
Yes, as humans we too must sit back and look at the marvels of this life. The human instinct dictates us to take advantage of the physical, material, emotional benefits we could get from the beautiful life-happenings. With all the many beautiful heartwarming feelings that Christmas evokes in us, our the Christmas animal in us will induce us to: Eat the delicious cake in front of you. Dance to the music. Sing to the music. Take photos. Pose for selfies. Laugh and smile at the pleasantries of the actual moment.
I am not in anyway against that we must do exactly these. Enjoy every moment.
But in focusing in only these, we might end up celebrating Christmas as a mere celebration rather than a mystery.
I believe the childhood Christmases in the past for anyone of us have been better felt than it is today. Time took one by one the important figures in our lives, figures that made childhood Christmases complete in itself, and so Christmases will never be the same again. Now that we are adults and have the means to “buy Christmas” Christmas became reachable and ownable; it totally became a celebration but ceased to be a mystery.
And because Christmas became a celebration, it became predominantly about food, clothes, decorations, fancy shining things, and sales on retail stores. Colors defined the season instead of season defining the colors. We know what happens to that. When the cost of bringing food to grocery stores goes up, prices go up. When prices soar our spirit diminishes until we can no longer afford the retail. Then we end up sad on Christmas day.
Some are sad on Christmas day because they only see it as a celebration alone and not a mystery.
As I sat and looked 2023 Christmas on a retrospect, I discovered many things about me.
I got so busy decorating the Church, learning how to bake, assisting the young people in the Christmas campaign, celebrating Mass, giving catechism. I almost got lost to the celebration aspect of Christmas.
I know I am a Christmas person. I make myself and other people feel the Christmas season….as a celebration.
For me, Christmas has always been about my childhood memories. I have reduced it to memory lane-remembering the persons in the past; my father, my grandparents, my friends, the parish priest in our parish in Bantay Ilocos Sur when I was a kid, the church dark ambiance during Simbang gabi, the bibinka paskua my family used to cook, the noisy fireworks in our neighborhood, the old Belen photo by my grandparents’ house, the caroling on dark streets. Indeed life was simple but was definitely happy.
These happy memories made me a Christmas person. However, Christmas changed every year.
Christmas won’t be the same again. With sadness in my heart I say this. I cling to my childhood Christmas as the undying and definitive standard of this season. The child in me long to go back to how happy and simple Christmas used to be.
On the quiet day of January 1, I sat back and took time to see the Christmas greetings I received, and I have received a lot.
As I respond one by one to these greetings, I was recalling special moments with these persons and prayed for each as I responded.
With these new people who expressed the sincerest of Christmas greetings I realized that God was not subtracting Christmas. He was actually multiplying it all along. He was creating new and happy memories.
Adult Christmas is not bad at all.
Time took special people one by one, year after year, but God was also leading new ones to make our future Christmases colorful.
There are reasons why the secular world invented Santa Claus and his reindeers. That is to emphasize Christmas as a mystery. Mystery is not always a false but romanticized fact. In fact, mystery is a reality better left unknown but nevertheless celebrated. I am not saying that Santa Claus is real. I am saying that hope is real.
I am not saying that sleight and reindeers are real. I am saying that gifts under the Christmas trees are real because families are real.
If we want to bring back heartwarming Christmases once again, let us bring back the original formula of Christmas: celebration of a mystery. In this way, Christmas will not really end. We only tore down the capitalism we have mounted around it. Next year, make sure to make your Christmas a celebration of a mystery.
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