Our Catholic Identity

by Ed Beckett '78, Assistant Principal for Spiritual Formation

It is hard to believe that the Christmas season is upon us. It seems like just yesterday we were leaving the beach on Labor Day. Yet, here it is again. For many of us struggling under the weight of a recession, Christmas may seem more a burden than a joy.

It seems worthwhile to remember that Santa Claus is actually Saint Nicholas, who lived in the 4th century and was known for his generosity to the poor. I-fe is also the patron saint of sailors and they spread his name from port to port. His feast day, December 6, was celebrated by the Dutch, who called the saint “Sinterklaas” and they carried the custom of exchanging gifts on this date to the New World. Gloucester City’s roots reach back to the early Dutch trading posts of the eastern seaboard and I always find it a cause for joy to think of those settlers celebrating on the banks of the Delaware nearly four hundred years ago.

By the 19th century, Christmas cards were regularly exchanged in Britain and America while many of the traditional carols we sing so heartily this time of year were being composed. Washington Irving’s “Old Christmas”, Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol,” and Clement Clarke Moore’s “A Visit from St. Nicholas” cemented the image of Christmas celebrations in the American mind. In the 20th century, department store shopping became a central part of the holiday. Prior to World War 2, Wanamaker’s hosted Christmas Eve sing-a-longs supported by music from their famous organ, and John Wanamaker, a prominent Presbyterian laymen, featured religious paintings depicting Biblical stories and a large Nativity scene within the store. 1924 saw Macy's begin their Thanksgiving parade as a vehicle for recruiting shoppers for Christmas and the boom in Christmas catalogues began around the same time. By the time Hollywood’s “Miracle on 34th St.” appeared in 1947 and Wanamaker’s began their Christmas light shows in the 1950s, the Christmas shopping bonanza had begun in earnest.

This year, we’ll hear a lot of news reports about holiday sales figures and what it all means for the economy, but I worry about kids (and adults) who think that Christmas is a one-day winter gift exchange where you get presents and take the tree down the next day. That isn’t a Christian tradition. It’s a commercial culture’s celebration of itself. Christmas can’t be contained in all the wrapping paper you can find in our malls and shopping centers. Christmas is a gift given to the human heart by a loving God.

I wonder if we might not seize the moment to focus upon the most important element in our Christmas celebrations - the Gift that is Christmas: the Christ. Wherever the table is set, it is set in His honor. Emmanuel — God among us. God present in the love we bear for one another within our families. God present in the Christmas card sent as a gesture of reconciliation to someone we closed our hearts to long ago. God present in the very young and the very old, God present in those in need and in the poor, God present in those small moments we too often forget to notice. “How silently, how silently! The wondrous gift is given!/ So God imparts to human hearts/ The blessings of His heaven.”

This might be the year that we make the time to give ourselves the gift of Christmas. An open heart will not be spurned and is the greatest gift we might offer. It is the only offer our loving God desires.