If ever there are moments to be savoured, Christmas has them. Why indeed to we bustle so frantically at Christmas time?What moves us? What truly does Christmas mean? Not only carols, the pressing crowds  in the shops, the snarl and clutter of traffic. If we pause for a moment, we can sort out our ideas [...]

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The true spirit of Christmas: It’s all about love

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If ever there are moments to be savoured, Christmas has them. Why indeed to we bustle so frantically at Christmas time?What moves us? What truly does Christmas mean? Not only carols, the pressing crowds  in the shops, the snarl and clutter of traffic.

If we pause for a moment, we can sort out our ideas of what it truly means – Love, for instance, in its widest sense, for Love is a part of what  Christmas means, we believe. Christmas also means simplicity –simplicity of worship and of hospitality and of gifts. St Luke’s account of Christ’s birth is an unexcelled model  of simplicity – so simple in the fact  and in the telling, but so divinely magnificent  in meaning. “And she brought forth  her first-born Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes , and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.”

May we remember especially on Christmas Day  that expensive gifts  and all the gaudy blaze  of the  Christmas celebration  have no meaning except as tokens  of love. Do you FEEL what Christmas means?Do you HEAR  the joy  of Christmas?  For Christmas is above all  joy –the joy of a heart open to the bounties of earth, good friends, good food, a shower of rain, the sparkle in children’s eyes, sun and starry skies, and the blessings of heaven.This is the joy of joys shared in a common pool,  and thereby many times increased.

In the words of Helen Keller, “”Christmas is the harvest time of love, souls are drawn to other souls……we dare to give friendship, service, the equal loaf  of  bread and love.””

What really makes Christmas? Behind the holly and the Santas, behind the colourful lights and decorations – is Mary’s inability to find a decent place to give birth to her infant Son. The first Christmas present -so Christians believe   – was God himself, God’s love in person, on earth, and it was wrapped in swaddling clothes.

Our modern Christmas can be so wrapped up in the bright packages of  commercialization  that you have to look  consciously  for the real meaning, the  essence, the core of Christmas. Is this season dedicated  just to attractive gifts  scattered under a green tree, or to a tiny child lying on yellow straw? To handsome presents  wrapped in colourful paper, or to  a Baby wrapped in swaddling clothes?

We must bring ourselves to remember that Christmas comes to us all the way  from a sacred spot  called  Bethlehem  and from a holy night  hundreds and hundreds of years ago. On that first Christmas, nobody was concerned with holly wreaths or Santas,or greeting cards or gifts. All attention funnelled down  -like the light  of the Star  on a bleak cave  and a helpless child. This is the heart of Christmas.

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