Spiritual Christmas vs. Worldly Christmas

By Engr. Carlos V. Cornejo

I came across an article entitled “Finding Joy Amid Sadness of Christmas”.  The article claims to advise people how to overcome sadness, loneliness, or grief during Christmas supposedly because of personal struggles, or “weight of expectations that can make it hard to embrace the festive cheer.” I thought to myself what kind of article is this? We are supposed to celebrate one of the biggest feasts as Christians and yet here’s someone advising us how to overcome sadness during Christmas.   It’s like going to a barangay fiesta which is typical here in the Philippines where there’s a lot of fun and merriment, in honor of a saint, and someone advises you “Hey, in case you are in a bad mood for the fiesta here’s how to still be able to celebrate the fiesta.”  This reminds me of a Peanuts comic strip when Linus said to Charlie Brown, “Charlie Brown, you’re the only person I know who can take a wonderful season like Christmas and turn it into a problem.”

It dawned on me that it is celebrating Christmas in a worldly way instead of the spiritual way.  It’s misunderstanding what Christmas is all about.  The article mentions for example of not to expect a “perfect Christmas” such as parties being a blast, when all your friends and relatives are around, where there’s gifts or cash giveaways, old traditions are followed, etc.  And that if one of these might be lacking, it could give way to sadness, or feeling down for missing someone or something.  The author of this article just told us how she celebrates Christmas, that it’s just material celebrations much like having a birthday party. Christmas is still a birthday party but it’s essentially spiritual not material because God’s feast days are always spiritual celebrations.

Christmas parties, gifts received, get-together with friends and families, singing, dancing etc. are just a bonus for celebrating Christmas.  Christmas is not even the biggest feast day for Christians.  It’s Easter Sunday. Christmas is just the beginning of what Easter celebrates.  The Resurrection of Christ is the greatest celebration because it is the culmination or completion of our salvation.  Easter is like celebrating a graduation of a kid who started schooling as a kindergarten many years ago (that’s what Christmas is) and has now finally finished college.

If you can’t appreciate Easter, you won’t be able to truly appreciate Christmas as well.  I think the underlying issue here is about living the Christian life.   If there is no intimacy with God through regular prayer, frequent attendance of Holy Mass, regular confession, obedience of the Commandments, constant formation of the Church’s doctrine and teachings, you will be clueless of the spiritual joy that makes you truly celebrate Christian feasts such as Christmas and Easter.  No wonder some people talk about sadness during Christmas which sounds absurd because you are supposed to be happy for the birth of our Savior, which is the beginning of liberation from sin and slavery of the devil. It totally misses the point.