paulisttalk.org

Although this time of year brings typical fights between
secularists,  Christians and, where they are numerous, Jews, over
outdoor displays in public places, it is hard to conclude from any of
this that America is somehow anti-Christmas.  On all the most overt
indicators of interest, America breaks the bell curve when it comes to
Christmas.  With stores lining themselves up for sales even before
they’ve blown out the candle in the pumpkin, red-and-green colors
dominate any landscape, and crooners endlessly dream of white
Christmas and roasting chestnuts.

One could justly claim that all of this evidence is commercial, the
result of decisions made in board rooms across the country nine months
before, so that retailers could peddle the goods that companies have
decided will sell to the American public. Some might argue that
Christmas is only about money.  Wild estimates are made of just how
much annual income comes from the Christmas season.  While economic
downturns have clamped the wallets of consumers, that same downturn
will be defeated, we are told, only when the “consumer comes back,”
when wallets are open, and everyone affirms the commercial basis of
American life. Even in times of recession, we are encouraged to spend.

Yet I wonder if, beneath it all, America is not solidly
pro-Christmas for very different reasons.  I wonder if
Christmas—especially with the narration of the birth of a baby in a
rustic cave, loved by Mary and Joseph, and making the skies sing—if
this account of the birth of Jesus does not drill down to deepest
parts of the American heart.  At Christmas, after all, we are allowed
to be tender, to embrace people we ordinarily would behold from arms
length, to watch our children’s eyes open in surprise and remember the
wonder of surprise itself.

Christmas is when America climbs into church buildings, pushing
“Gloria” and “Noel” out of its throat, in one of the few rituals which
ties peoples’ lives together, from infancy through adolescence and
into adulthood.  Christmas is when American can suspend its cynicism
for just a few weeks and people, in winter’s darkness, can dream of a
city of lights.
What does this say about the American soul?  About our deeper
dreams?  About our bolder hopes?
At Christmas time the evangelist in all of us can steal a secret
smile.  As bad as faith might look today, it is far from dead.  Push
the tinsel aside and one might find hearts longing to be touched by
God.