Merry Christmas!
The past two days made me so happy to be Catholic! What a wonderful (if exhausting) celebration
it was. We may do a lot of things
poorly, but we know how to do Christmas as a community.
This is also my favorite time to get into conversations with
non-Catholic experts on Catholicism. One
of my favorites that usually takes place over the last cup of eggnog is the
person who pushes back in his chair with a crooked grin and announces, “Well,
you know, Christmas is just a pagan holiday that Catholics are celebrating.” Then, for some inexplicable reason, Catholics
feel they have to save the honor of the Church by fighting this accusation.
Catholics: Relax.
There are a number of reasons not to get excited.
#1 True pagans are
not evil. Paganism gave way to
Christianity. It passed for a
reason. Neo-pagans are trying to reclaim
something like guys in midlife crisis trying to reclaim college dorm life. (I know neo-pagans are not going to like
that. But this is not a pagan blog, it
is a Catholic one and is expressing Catholic beliefs. Counter this on your own blog.) It may not have given birth to it the same
way that the Jewish faith did, but in many ways it too prepared the way for a
belief in God. Chesterton spoke highly
of them. (Search for Chesterton and
pagans and find various essays.) Don’t
take the bait about being “tainted” with pagans.
#2 So what if the 25th
isn’t the exact date of Christmas? What
if it was just decreed that day, say in the year 350 by Pope Julius I, to help
Europeans being introduced to Christ to make the transition from their pagan
roots to Christianity? The whole of
society is celebrating and were Christians supposed to sit at home and twiddle
their thumbs? If we don’t know the exact
date of Christmas, why not make it on this day?
Does that taint the day somehow and if so, how? Once we “baptize” the day, does having it on
the same day as a former pagan holiday somehow make it evil? Is it really that far beyond the power of God
to overcome? Really?
Does that mean we have to investigate every day of the year
and make sure there was not a pagan holiday on that day so that Christians will
not accidently celebrate something evil?
(Just how does one accidently worship a pagan god when their intent is
to worship Jesus anyway?) Here is just
another example of something forming (worship of a god no matter how poorly
conceived) giving way or blossoming into truth.
That is really quite beautiful.
#3 All that being
said, there is some argument over which god was being celebrated and when. There is some belief that it is possible that
this was in fact THE DAY though we won’t know for sure in this life. There is some scholarly evidence out there
that in actuality it was not until AFTER Christians started really celebrating
Christmas that the pagan holiday took off in order to counter it.
In the end – who cares?
God is so powerful in can purify any day. He is so awesome that He is not disappointed
in us if for 2,000+ years we celebrated His birth on the wrong calendar
day. And so to the guy trying to be the
(birthday) party pooper, the only response needed is, “And isn’t it so cool
that God is so good and powerful that that doesn’t really matter?”
3 comments:
Thank you for giving some thoughtful responses to the age-old meme of discrediting Catholic holidays!!!
It is interesting from a historical perspective to research the origins of Christmas. But the connections that one discovers between, say, Christmas and Saturnalia shouldn't negate the feelings one has about Christmas.
Through history, humans have always been influenced by other people's cultures, and we assimilate the aspects that speak to us. But we also make them our own.
Specific dates in history are reserved for the mundane not the divine. The divine is outside of time.
Don't you suppose that Mama remembered her son's birthday and told it to others? Imagine after he dies, telling others about their journey to Bethlehem for the census, how awful it was to travel when she was nearly ready to give birth. Then remembering her gratitude to have a safe place to stay, albeit not the type she had anticipated. And the joy brought forth at His birth. Her surprise at the visitors who came forth; first the shepherds who were invited guests, then the Magi, who came later with wondrous gifts for her tiny son, the unexpected journey to Egypt to keep Him safe. The angel keeps saying "Be not afraid" but how not to be afraid when someone wants to kill your newborn child? Knowing all the while that in the end she would bear great sorrow, Mary goes to Egypt, then to Nazareth, to fulfill the prophecy that He will be a Nazarene.
What mother would forget the day of her baby's birth? And for those who say it wouldn't snow in Dec. in Bethlehem, I've got news for you this year that involves bad storms so while it may not be typical that Bethlehem would have snow...
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