December 2022
Christmas Secret
There was very little in the stable where Christ was born; about it no trace of the affluent society. The standard of living of the Holy Family was a poor one. Its members, nevertheless, were at peace. They had, in their poverty, what men try in vain today to derive from material possessions-alone-complete and absolute contentment.
The reason for the contentment is clear. For the three in the stable on the first Christmas night nothing else mattered but their possession by love of the truth of God, incarnate now and lying in a manger's straw. In the light of that reality all else was as nothing. Having that, they had all that men on this earth could ever desire. That is why their hearts were at peace. That is why they knew joy. The secret of Christmas is here. It is in seeking the truth alone that we find all else besides, forgetting ourselves for God's sake that we achieve self-realisation, bearing the burdens of others for the sake of Him Who bore His cross, that our own steps are lightened. Happiness is never to be had when grabbed at directly for its own sake. It comes only from love given to others for God's sake, which means, in fact, with deepest reverence for themselves. When the baby of Bethlehem had grown to manhood He said that anyone who wanted to find his life could do so only by losing it. It is plain now what He meant. One gets only by giving without hope of getting at all, finds fulfilment by shedding self in surrender to truth through love, possesses all when one snatches at nothing for oneself. That is the lesson of Bethlehem.
Let us take compassion this Christmas on those who will not learn it, who seek so pathetically to find fulfilment in an accumulation of material possessions and think of Christmas as a time to concentrate on unfettered pleasure-seeking for its own sake. These need our prayers. They need also the example of Christians who see Christmas as a time of giving rather than taking, who turn, during the lovely days of its season, to the hungry, the homeless, the poor, the strangers and the refugees to extend to them the love of Christ; who give something of themselves during this time to the many who need Christ's love.
What a difference would be made to the world if, during the short span of days from Christmas to the New Year, Christians everywhere attempted to do just that, going out of their way to extend to others, wherever they found them, a glimmer of that towering love which brought God's son to earth on the first Christmas night to dwell amongst us.
Those foremost in that work of brotherly love would remind us of the lesson they have learnt. It is that no solution to the world's problems is to be found merely in the formulation of elaborate programmes. What men need from us so desperately now is the marvel of the charity of Christ; of ourselves given to others for God's sake.