In recent years, the ‘Put Christ back into Christmas’ campaign has exhorted people to choose cribs over Christmas trees and Baby Jesus cards instead of snowmen. In some European countries it was even important to emphasise that the word ‘Christmas’ should be used for ‘Christmas’, to counter the growing secular trend of using religiously neutral terms to describe the festivity.
This campaign was both good and necessary. However, a radical ‘Put Christ back into Christmas’ campaign should do much more than that. It should highlight what the Father Christmas of the 1947 version of Miracle on 34th Street so aptly said: “Christmas isn’t just a day, it’s a frame of mind.”
The frame of mind to be adopted by Christians must borrow from the supremely daring direction set for them by Jesus as he revealed the loving nature of his Father to mankind and took radical action, on that basis, to initiate a transformation of human society. That frame of mind would be one founded on the Christian belief that God the Father, through Jesus Christ, reached out to humanity, and sought to change it, not from the outside but by becoming intimately involved in it, intervening in it – literally becoming part of it.
So if Christians are to respond, in their everyday lives and not just ritualistically, to the message that lies behind the coming of Christ, Christmas should be far more than a season for small acts of charity – laudable as these may be. It should also prompt a personal commitment towards active involvement in building the kind of social, political and economic structures whose seeds were laid by God’s unique intervention in humanity.
Christians should thus view Christmas as a call to intervene. To take personal action, in some form or other, in favour of a better society, one founded on the concept, taught by Jesus, that we are all children of God and therefore all brothers and sisters.
Otherwise the real value of Christmas is undermined not just by those who commercialise it but by the believers who pay no attention to its real nature. Otherwise, Christmas for Christians risks turning into the equivalent of Christmas for so many non-believers: merely a time to foment a feel-good escape from hard, everyday realities and a brief bout of ‘generosity’ to paper over the injustices and sins that plague society.
The Gospel narratives affirm that the birth of Jesus heralded a new way of doing things and of structuring society. Before and after this event, many a baby became king, but Christmas was the only time in history when a king became a baby.
Mainstream wisdom at the time of Jesus believed in the Pax Romana, forced by Roman legions. The hosts of angels that sung on Christmas night heralded the Pax of Bethlehem built by man of good will. The saviour of humanity was not the emperor sitting on his golden throne but a helpless baby in a donkey’s manger. It was those on the fringes of society (i.e. the shepherds who were considered to be unreliable witnesses) who were the forerunners of the good news, not the respected establishment.
Jesus did not become man to leave things as they were. Christians are invited to carry forward his mission of radically changing society.
Christians do bring Christ back to Christmas by participating in the liturgy and generously giving charity to those in need. But they could do so much more. Pope Francis posed the question: “Do I as a Catholic watch from my balcony?” He then emphatically answered: “No, you can’t watch from the balcony. Get right in there!”
Christmas should be the time when Maltese Christians pledge to “get right in there”. They should, for one, commit themselves to defend the dignity of life at every stage. They could also, for example, add their voice to the calls by civil society movements for an end to institutionalised corruption, and rather than remaining passive, loudly demand that full democracy to be restored to the country. They could join in the fight against the degradation of the environment for the benefit of the few, or do their bit to bridge the growing gap between rich and poor, or take a stand against the xenophobic attitude towards asylum seekers. The list could go on.
No, Christmas is not just the season to be jolly, as the carol goes. It is the season for silent reflection, as the Pope suggests, but it is also an apt time to determine how to get more involved in creating a better Malta.
This is a Times of Malta print editorial