The culture of consumerism has invaded the Christmas period so much that many people have stopped questioning its devastating impact on the true spirit of the Christmas celebration. Photo: Chris Sant Fournier

Advent, the first season of the Church year which begins today, leading up to Christmas, is par excellence a time in which believers in Christ are invited to remain in watchful and active waiting, nourished by prayer and by the effective commitment to love.

Originally Advent was a period of strict fasting, observed in anticipation of the festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ. The first mention of the Advent season was, in fact, at the Council of Tours in AD 567, when a fast for monks in December was recorded.

In the seventh century, fasting became a widespread practice in the Western world. But today it is seen as a remarkable deed of self-control if people restrict themselves, for instance, from drinking wine or eating sweets during Advent.

What is surely having an impact on people’s minds nowadays during Advent are the enterprises of the consumerist Christmas ‘machine’, which have clicked into action with invitations such as to “get the most sought-after gifts of the season”.

The late Archbishop Joseph Mercieca – who, had he still been with us, on December 12, 2016, would have celebrated the 40th anniversary since he became Archbishop of Malta – viewed consumerism as one of the “new idols” that blot and denigrate man’s dignity. Mgr Mercieca used to encourage believers to be on their guard against a vision which would uncritically yield to lifestyles inspired by a consumerism indifferent to spiritual values.

The culture of consumerism has invaded the Christmas period so much that many people have accepted it as part of their lives and have stopped asking questions on its devastating impact on the true spirit of the Christmas celebration.

The Child Jesus calls people to act in a way that is simple, balanced, consistent, capable of seeing and doing what is essential

In the Maltese islands, consumerism has succeeded in digging deep too, although it has not managed to choke the people’s priceless value of solidarity and abundant generosity. Even so, we cannot just stop asking questions about its expanding invasion of our way of preparing for Christmas and its proper Christian celebration. We cannot just bow our heads to its power and stop asking questions about it because, as many would perhaps argue, “it’s a fact of life”.

A teacher of a high school class once put a small chalk dot on the blackboard. He then asked the class what it was. A few seconds passed. Then someone said: “That is a chalk dot on the blackboard.” The rest of the class seemed relieved that the obvious had been stated, and no one had anything else to say.

“I’m surprised at you,” the teacher told the class. “I did the same exercise yesterday with kindergar­tners and they thought of 50 dif­ferent things the chalk mark could be: an owl’s eye, a cigar butt, the top of a telephone pole, a star, a pebble, a squashed bug, a rotten egg, a bird’s eye, and so on.” The older students had learned how to find a factual answer, but had lost the ability to look for more than one answer.

The ‘dot’ of our era’s Western Christian community, of which we form part, is the consumerist Christmas machine. In this ‘dot’ we cannot see just one factual answer, namely that what is happening is a fact of life, unless we do not want ourselves to end up and remain prisoners of the consumerist apparatus. We must have the ability to seek deeper responses.

In last year’s Christmas Midnight Mass homily, Pope Francis said that in a society so often intoxicated by consumerism and hedonism, wealth and extravagance, appearances and narcissism, the Child Jesus calls people to act soberly, “in other words, in a way that is simple, balanced, consistent, capable of seeing and doing what is essential”.

The Pope’s reflection offers good food for thought during Advent. We must remember that Christmas is not and can never be merely a commemoration in time or simply an exciting, often expensive memory of something beautiful. Christmas is much more. The Child of Bethlehem teaches us what is truly essential in our lives.

cphbuttigieg@gmail.com