Another Christmas season! Another time for holiday cheer, for exchanging gifts, for receiving and sending cards, offering and receiving holiday greetings, attending parties, hearing Christmas songs, and some sacred, some secular. Another opportunity to enter more deeply into what we take to be the most important event in history or to allow the invitation to go unanswered or perhaps answered superficially.

I confess: I love almost everything that is related to Christmas and I think there is room for all the activities that we engage in during this wonderful season.

Whether we are mailing cards to friends or enjoying the company of others at a party, all of it is related to the mind-boggling event of the birth of the Son of God.
The one exception for me would be the gospel of consumerism, a gospel which unfortunately is quite evident during this holy season. Except for that, I welcome all that is connected to Christmas with open arms.

The gospel of consumerism which we can observe being preached at any time in our society is more obvious than usual at Christmas time. During the Christmas season we are bombarded with the gospel of consumerism. The easiest way to grasp the meaning of the gospel of consumerism is to compare it and contrast it to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

A gospel tells us who we are, who our neighbors are and who God is. The Gospel of Jesus Christ tells us that we are infinitely important to God, that each of us has been lovingly created by God and that each of us is called to an intimate love relationship with God.

This Gospel tells us that our neighbors are our brother and sisters in Christ, that the Son of God out of love died on a cross for every person whoever lived or whoever will live. This Gospel tells us that God is Infinite Love, a Father Who cares for us more than we can conceive or imagine.

The gospel of consumerism tells us that we are consumers, that our value is in what we possess, what we have and own. It tells us that our neighbors are people that we should strive to have more than. We should not desire merely to “keep up with the Joneses” but rather we should strive “to have more than the Joneses.” We should live in more expensive houses, have larger and more expensive automobiles, send our families to more expensive and prestigious schools.

This gospel tells us to evaluate people in terms of how they dress, where they live, what kind of jobs they have. It tells us that god is money or power or prestige or fame.

A friend of mine, who has a lovely and loving wife and three marvelous children, once said to me: “The most important thing in my life is my Cadillac.” How could he make such a ridiculous statement? He had been brainwashed by the gospel of consumerism. At least to some extent he had accepted the gospel of consumerism. He was evaluating his life in terms of the kind of car he drove.

During the Christmas season, the gospel of consumerism is preached feverishly. I have the impression that it is targeted especially toward children. Those who preach the gospel of consumerism try to convince us that we have all sorts of needs that we really do not have. The preachers of the gospel of consumerism seem especially successful with some children.

Parents tell me that many Christmas gifts which children were convinced that they could not live without before Christmas are abandoned about an hour after the wrappings are taken off them on Christmas morning. I think all of us have to be critical and wary of the gospel of consumerism wherever and whenever we find it. Children are not the only ones who can be seduced by the gospel of consumerism.

Except for the gospel of consumerism, I welcome just about everything else that has been traditionally connected to the Christmas season. The meaning of the Incarnation, that the Son of God has taken on flesh, has become a member of the human race, has graced all that is human. The Risen Lord is everywhere inviting us into relationship with His Father. We can encounter the Lord in the Eucharist, in Scripture, in our daily formal prayers, in our reading of spiritual books. We can also encounter the Lord while partying, while accepting and giving gifts, while receiving and sending greetings.

The Risen Christ’s presence is not limited to the Christmas season but that season can speak powerfully of His presence and can help us become more aware of His presence in our daily lives. The Christmas season can remind us of the most important gift we have ever received, God’s love.