Christmas is a season of hope and salvation
OPINION:
“And there were in the same country shepherds watching and keeping the night watches over their flock. And behold an angel of the Lord stood by them and the brightness of the Lord shone round about them; and they feared with a great fear.
“And the angel said to them: Fear not, for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, that shall be to all the people. For this day in the city of David is born to you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
In case my friend Luke isn’t clear enough here, Christmas is about the hope of salvation. The good tidings proclaimed by the angel are that the savior has come to all the people. Every single person, no matter how broken or sad or lost, has the ability to redeem their life.
“A Christmas Carol” is the most popular story associated with the season in the English-speaking world because it is about the possibility of hope and optimism that is at once both religious and realistic. An old man, buried in misery, loneliness and remorse, learns it is never too late to change one’s own life and, in so doing, change the lives of those around us for the better.
Despite the quicksand of our particular problems — and the useless paralysis caused by regret — we can choose a better path.
It is tempting to get caught up in the chaff of preparing for Christmas. Is the house clean enough? Did I buy the right presents or spend the right amount of money? That’s all trivia.
The gifts and the parties are enthusiastic, if sometimes imperfectly understood, expressions of the optimism, hope and joy that we have because those who have walked in darkness — and that is all of us — have seen a great light.
Those of us lucky enough to be believers for some time have been given a great gift, and what we have been freely given, we should be prepared to share. There are people all around us who are hungry for hope and meaning. Many of them are only dimly aware that we celebrate what they seek.
That’s why getting agitated over “Season’s Greetings,” “holiday parties,” “winter events” or the tragically sad “happy holidays” cards from businesses and other organizations is contrary to the point of the holy day.
Ignore all that nonsense and take interactions with people as teachable moments. Remember that they are on the same journey to God as the rest of us. Welcome and encourage the small steps, and you might be rewarded with bigger ones.
Finally, take a moment to reflect on the unlikely nature of it all. We celebrate the birth of a boy born to obscure and poor parents in a remote outpost of the Roman Empire. His foster father was an itinerant carpenter. His mother was a young woman who was probably trying to understand the events of the previous few months of her life.
He was born in a stable and placed in a manger. Thirty-three years on, he was executed for crimes against the regime after his friends had betrayed and abandoned him. His followers were a handful of mostly illiterate Jews who had never been more than 50 miles from where they were born.
Yet his message of love and optimism — that God loves us and wants us to be happy in this world and the next — has proved powerful beyond all measure. That simple message and the simple messengers chosen to deliver it — shepherds, fishermen, all of us — has proved so persuasive that no one has been able to extinguish it, though many have tried.
Christianity and the world are always in tension. The world — especially the political world in which many of us live and work — celebrates cynicism, glorifies looking out for No. 1, and focuses on all the wrong things. It does its best to create hopelessness every day.
God’s message, focused on joy and love and delivered and remembered most pointedly each Christmas, endures in part precisely because it is the antidote to the pathologies and problems we see around us and within us.
So, it is with great joy, hope and optimism that I wish you and everyone in your care a very merry Christmas.
• Michael McKenna is a contributing editor at The Washington Times, and is the co-host of the podcast “The Unregulated.”
