Why
Christmas Still Matters
Dr.
Dennis J Teehan, Jr.
The
meaning of Christmas has changed over the past few decades. Christmas is a religious holiday, but the spiritual
essence of the holiday has become matched, if not exceeded, by a culture of commercialism
and consumerism. This has undoubtedly
changed how Americans and Christians throughout the world celebrate it.
Hand and
hand with this is the obvious reality that as a general rule Americans and
people everywhere are increasingly questioning their faith. People are exploring their ideas about God
and re-examining their values in ways that make many less by-the-book pious.
As America
redefines it’s faith the question remains of what happens to the most important
holiday in Christianity and it’s traditionally Judeo Christian
fundamentals. I think it safe to say as
America goes through a spiritual re-configuration that there is a small vacuum
at the core of Christmas, and for now this vacuum has been filled with a
culture of rabid commercialism.
I for
one believe that Christmas still matters.
Not just in terms of electronics, video games and gift certificates or a
cultural experience but as a spiritual and existential holiday of great
importance to the human story.
I am a
Christian, but I am also a doctor and a scientist. Count me as among the group of Christians who
are questioning dogma, but to me the literal truth of the Christmas story is
less important than the ideas that it represents. It
is not some distant event that makes Christmas and Christianity what they are,
but acred psycho spiritual themes.
Christmas
should not only be viewed only as a religious holiday celebrating a 2000 year
old event, but rather as an intimate celebration of ideas that reside in each
of us. The values that Christ preached
when he was alive are as important to our survival and success as a species
today as they were then (if not more so):
social justice, compassion,
caring for each other. These are
the only way for human beings to create a better world, which is what Christ,
and countless other teachers, have preached to us for millenia.
The
ideas and themes carry a message that resonates with so many souls because they
powerfully and wonderfully embody so much of the human experience. They are not unique to Christianity or even
religion, but show up everywhere, in every culture and every story ever
told. And these sacrosanct ideas are wonderfully epitomized
in the story of Christ and his birth.
The story of Christ
represents something in each of us. What more sacred an idea there is to the human
experience than the notion that each one of us has a Christ in us? (Or a Buddha?
Or a Mohammed for that matter). That each of us born into this world carries
these ideas with us every day as we move through our lives and experience the
joy and sorrow of existence. That each
of us is a manifestation of an infinite God and that each soul which
individuates from the infinite sea of consciousness might remember that all
things ultimately come from one source
The values that
Christmas represents (joy, giving, compassion and mercy) all tie back to that
one very sacred notion: that each
individual can by honoring our highest self be a part of creating a better world. On a
deeper level this is an acknowledgement that all life forms are interconnected
and that an act of kindness to another and the world is in actuality an act of
kindness to one’s self. What could be
more sacred or divine than that?
As we
move through the Christmas season and experience what it has become and how it
has changed, try not to forget the relevance and intimacy of the Christ story to all souls everywhere. Regardless of religion, the themes of Christ
story are critical to the human experience.
At it’s core is the idea that all
things are one. And that, and not
ruthless commercialism, is what makes Christmas sacred, important and divine to all humans.
