The holiday spirit is in the air... and it smells of consumerism. One thing that still rankles me is a Christmas episode of Archie's Weird Mysteries I watched several years back--and I thought of all the following in those 20 minutes of TV time. In it, he solves a Christmas mystery of a evil ghost haunting Mr. Lodge's department store. I won't spoil the ending, but here're some observations:
Archie pontificates about the 'true meaning of Christmas', which he quantifies as the spirit of giving, friendship and trust. Just wondering, where does this come from? The cartoon doesn't say--it euphemises the Advent into a feel-good story of trusting your friends and giving presents (did I mention consumerism a while back?)
Santa is portrayed as agreeing with Archie that all the spirit and meaning has gone out of Christmas. Now that I can agree with, but his solution? Give Archie a mystery to solve, and teach his friends to trust in each other and remember what Christmas is really about; giving and caring and sharing! Ironically, the real St. Nicolas wouldn't have wasted any time going straight to the source of this: God the Son, coming to earth as a man to give His life as a ransom for many.
It's rather a pity that we've focused on the second part of the angels' song: "And on earth peace, goodwill toward men." at the expense of the first: "Glory to God in the highest."
But there's something in our hearts that still brings us back to the Christ child, through the layers of human adornment of what God did. Prayers are offered. Gifts are sent. The poor, the disadvantaged, and the disabled are honoured. It's our duty to use this time of perceptiveness to point out what C.S. Lewis called "the Eternal Fact, the Father of all other Facthood."
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