Merry Christmas!

I am what you would call a “Christmas Freak”. Usually, I get into the Christmas Spirit around late October and don’t come off the “Christmas High” until late January…is that okay? Heck yes! In fact, I encourage it…let me tell you why.

The Incarnation of Christ is one of the central mysteries of our faith as Catholics. God took on human frailty so that we might leave our frailty behind and strive to be more like our creator. The Un-comprehensible Being became a creature, just like you and me, in an act of amazing love…how awesome is that?! That is not a mystery that should be locked into a short 12-day period of celebration for the individual believer. Sure, liturgically speaking, we have other awesome things to celebrate so we set aside that 12-day period strictly for the celebration of the Incarnation. But we, as individual Catholics, should not loose the spirit of love, fellowship, and warmth when we pack up the Christmas tree.

Christmas, of course, has fallen victim to the secular world, as most Christian holidays have. It has become more about the presents under the tree, rather than the presence of Christ, real and living, in this world of ours. How do we reverse this trend? Well, as I said earlier, packing up the spirit of Christmas with the tree, is not helping the situation. We, ourselves, need to learn what Christmas is all about. If we know what Christmas is all about, it is almost impossible not to be overjoyed. God loves us all so much that he comes to dwell with us. But if we shove Christ out the door after the Christmas movies come to an end, are we really immersed in the Christian experience that Christmas is?

Am I telling you to leave your Christmas décor up throughout the year? No. Personally, I would get sick of those flashing lights on the tree after awhile. But perhaps leave a nativity scene displayed somewhere in your house to remind you of the awesome gift that the Incarnation is, and to remind yourself daily that Christ’s presence in your life. If you feel like you are loosing that spirit which has come to be associated with the season of Christmas, take a few minutes and meditate on the mystery of the Incarnation. Perhaps you will even gain some sort of new insight into the mystery of the Incarnation and, maybe, you will even fall deeper in love with your Catholic faith.

This idea should be applied to EVERY Christian holiday. Some of you are probably scratching your head and asking “Why?” Well, the answer is simple, Catholicism is a joy-filled religion. We have many feasts and mysteries to celebrate throughout the year, but if we allow our celebration to cease, there is no reason for Catholicism to be filled with joy. Perhaps you don’t outwardly celebrate 365 days a year, but every day (yes, every day) we should set some time aside to sit and be thankful for the many mysteries of our faith. If we do this, more and more people will be drawn to us, because, in doing so, we would become joy-filled people who seek to serve God in every way possible, out of thanksgiving for all He has done for us.