We are now immersed in the “Happ-Happiest Time of the Year.” Christmas and the days leading up to it are a great and special time.
Really?
When our marketing director told me we needed a holiday-themed blog post, I am pretty sure she wanted and expected a feel-good piece – something with a message of “peace on earth and goodwill to all.” Joy of the season stuff. Alas, she may be disappointed, as might readers of our firm blog and my LinkedIn posts.
Yet, as trial lawyers – and I am very much exactly that – we have an overriding duty of honesty. We do no one any favors by telling anyone, including clients or prospective clients, what we think they want to hear and/or ignoring the harsh edges of reality.
The reality is that Christmas time is hard for many people. Just looking around locally, some face financial stress which dampens holiday cheer. Others have serious health issues. Families and relationships are often fractured – and this time of year exacerbates those festering wounds. Some are lonely, perhaps desperately so. Life for such those is undoubtedly harder in these rarified weeks around Christmas and New Year.
For all of us who are past their thirties (and many who are younger), Christmas is also a time when you can’t help but think about those loved ones who have passed – and those moments are bittersweet, at best.
Viewing the larger world, instability, poverty, violence and war are pervasive. There is suffering on levels which are incomprehensible to us. Christmas will not likely offer any material alleviation.
So, what is the point of this seemingly bah-humbug piece?
I do have a message but to get there I need to get a bit theological, so if that offends you just stop here – and write me off as a mean Grinch, or curmudgeon. I’ve been called a lot worse.
For those who stick with me, try to keep an open mind. Avoid the inclination to hit the mental mute button which many seek when such discussions arise.
Christmas celebrates the birth of Christ 2000 years ago. Back then, Israel was not unlike our modern world. It was a hard place. Life was not easy. The oppression of the people was quite real. There was ample suffering. Mary and Joseph weren’t somehow privileged either. The baby Jesus was born in a barn, likely a dirty and malodorous setting.
Yet, for those of us who are Christians or to some degree adhere that “faith tradition” (a term I detest, by the way), Christmas is about God coming into the world as a human, to live, suffer and die as one of us. This is God’s great gift to his people. Incidentally, this is the rationale of holiday gift giving. It’s our own small replication of that great divine generosity.
That overwhelming generosity is, of course, a message of hope. Even in all the darkness and despair of this world, if this is real - as many have believed for centuries but now have a tough time accepting - such an event radically changes the dynamics of human existence.
Fast forward to the present day. Western society is largely secular. Christianity is certainly not the primary world view. In fact, it’s often derided by elites among us. Many would call the Christmas story a fairy tale – and not even a very good one.
Here is what is peculiar, however. The spirit of the season seems to have a life of its own – morphing even larger in a world which frequently deems its religion origins as irrelevant or, worse, dangerous.
Why?
I have a theory. Over a couple of millenniums of Christendom, this time of year has been suffused with a feeling of hope that is almost always grossly discordant with the actual reality of life. My unscientific analysis is that this sense of hope has permeated our DNA. Maybe it’s been there all along, but Christmas provided its expression.
Full disclosure, as a theologian I am an outstanding trial lawyer. But if I am right, then that fact alone is good news for all of us - those who believe the Christmas story and those who think it’s fiction. It means we all are hardwired for community. We long for hope. We can’t help but seek it in our lives.
There is more to our existence than our current travails – and, yes, we know that in our very beings. By itself, that is cause for joy.
Merry Christmas.
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