It’s only been four weeks since Christmas.  I’m still de-cluttering, paying off those bills, and picking up pine tree needles stubbornly stuck in-between slats in the wood floor. Where is my joy? Everything was so cheerful during Advent and Christmas, but wait…if the point of Christmas is simply to cheer us up then religion is indeed the ‘opium of the people’ meant to numb our sensibilities for six weeks when we spend too much money, each too much food, drink too much wine and muddle through life.

While songs of winter wonderland, family fun, sledding, chestnuts roasting on an open fire, sleigh bells ringing — are you listening? — warms the cockles of my heart and are wonderful things,  the real message of Christmas is to be found in the Christmas carols themselves whose lyrics are getting lost, but are so deeply catechetical:

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing …glory to the newborn King…God and sinners reconcile; veiled in flesh the Godhead seen, Hail the Incarnate Deity.  Born that man no more may die  Born to raise the sons of Earth. Born to give them second birth. .. 

O Holy Night…Long lay the world in sin and error pining.  Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.  Fall on your knees.  O hear the Angels’ voices.  O night divine when Christ is born…

Oh how slowly Christmas has been turned into celebrating the feelings it elicits rather than the Truth we should ponder and be drawn toward.  Feelings are fleeting; truth endures and does more than give us warm fuzzies.  It penetrates our mind and soul leaving us with authentic, pure joy that  lasts even when the final pine needle is plucked from the floor boards.

Resolution for next year: 1)  to turn off the radio and play Christmas carol CDs in my car and 2) create a better Spotify account with authentic Christmas carols… in addition to It’s a Holly Jolly Christmas.  

It’s the best time of the year.