Why Christmas Still Matters

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.