That Christmas means union, affection, family. But above all, it’s a moment of the year when the events are told, the goals achieved, the ones we didn’t reach, the dreams, the frustrations. Over the years, this date has been demystified and lost its original semantic core: the coming of Christ into the world. And it is that the West has given everything around Christmas a mercantile, materialistic weight. In the Global North there are also traditions that are not typical of the countries that emerged from the Hispanic tribe, but are globalizing. meanwhile in Latin Americawere common wise men, the representation of the birth of the child in Bethlehem, the midnight masses; are in the United States Santa Claus, the little tree (completely of pagan origin), the sledges, the shops full of gifts. How much cultural domain, political symbolism, is there in any of these non-Hispanic elements of Christmas?
There is still much to be said of these days, especially as in the frenzy of drinks, dinner, Christmas cries and carols we ignore the man who is remembered: poor Jesus, who preached love among men and was killed by it. That and nothing else should be the question. The same who, when made holy, was also mythologized, turned into a symbol of the power of the system. The egalitarian Christ who broke bread among all must be present at Christmas dinner. What we see on TV, however, is a kind of competition as to which tree is taller and has more lights, which store is more luxurious, which figure shows eccentricity in public. Away from the essence these days, the order of the day seems to be to pose for the cameras with gifts, with sumptuous food, while forgetting that much of this pomp is fake and that there are malnourished, forgotten, silent people around the world are.
Humanity has just emerged from a global pandemic and is celebrating a Christmas that isn’t for everyone, just like medicines, health equipment, or hospitals weren’t. Nevertheless, Christmas carols hypocritically speak of a “silent night”. All this while the guns keep firing in Ukraine and half the world as the soldiers and their superiors prepare attacks in the dead of night, perhaps using the same Christmas occasion as bait to trap their enemy. During the First World War, the moment when the soldiers on the fighting fronts disobeyed their bosses and played football, celebrated Christmas and sang allegorical songs was famous. Today, death, pain and blood continue unabated, nobody would believe that could change. Hate has been normalized. In ditches even more terrible than those of the past, the hopes of a truly Christian world in the spirit of the original Christ are dying.
And it is that the Nazarene is not present in the opulent television shows, in the excessive spending, in the little trees full of lights, nor in the commercial advertisements. We won’t see it there, but in the eyes of despair, misery, hunger, disease. This is the true Mass that concerns us, that challenges us and challenges any kind of hypocrisy or double standard. In a world of pain, Christ can neither celebrate nor be happy, he will not ride in a sleigh with Santa Claus. He must remove the nails and come down from His cross, help us bear our weight, or completely free us from such suffering.
We are told that Christmas is for laughing, for celebrating and for eating, that we hate to party because we don’t see it that way. But all this only silences the real, it only silences the sufferer, it only avoids the one who neither eats nor drinks. Maybe that’s why the Global North wants us to forget the birth and its representations, he wants us to adopt the sleigh, the sapling, because all this symbolism denies the uncomfortable Jesus, the Jesus whipping in the temple and driving out the merchants . The neon lights of the cities at Christmas have nothing to do with the humble straw crib, with the poor but beautiful setting of the Bethlehem event. The Nazarene’s promise of purity and decency does not fit into the luxurious mansions and storefronts filled with things that few can buy or that some buy through debt. We are asked to forget the Magi, because in reality they were not kings or magicians, but master philosophers from the East who, with their wisdom, gave a divine touch to the newborn child. For merchants, anything that comes from above, anything that shines with its own light, will be an enemy. The Star of Bethlehem must pale before the bulbs of the sapling.
But when that happens, then Christmas ceases to be. If anything needs to be saved before the date, it is precisely the righteous and humane meaning of the one who came into the world as a savior and example. This man who was flesh and blood and had a real imprint should not be hidden behind the tinsel he condemned himself to exist. It must not be commercialized or trivialized, but go its way of martyrdom and light. It is not the Jesus of the altars, but the one who walks with us, reminding us that we have equal dignity and rights and that we are equal and as such happiness should be for all. This revolutionary act, this millennial revolt that the neon lights deny. This idea that is silenced with the cries in the ads, that hides in the will-o’-the-wisps and that the world desperately seeks out amidst the beating heart of materialism, banality, superficiality.
Christmas is born and for that we must undergo transformations, purify ourselves, be something different from what we have been doing. Change requires boldness, the search for what is hidden, the salvation of that inner Christ.
There is nothing else to celebrate, to have joy, but also not that we help our neighbor, that we love him, that we exchange hate for the egalitarian and genuine struggle in this world. Birth as this creative act must be saved, not only to be displayed on the doors of a temple, but to be carried on. More than the sapling, more than Santa Claus, there is a radiant glow that compels us for the good of man. And that is the meaning of the child who came into the world more than two thousand years ago. The other impurity is taken away by time, it is waste.
This year, when we light the tree, when we admire it, let us remember that its light does not shine brighter than that of the Star of Bethlehem, even if the news, the fashion and entertainment media want to sell us a different version of Christmas. This is the difference between the light of heaven and that of man, between the sublime and the imperfect, between the ideal and its imperfect realities.
Let’s strive for the ideal and make it appear. It is more humane and decent than just wishing a Merry Christmas when we know that many are not happy. This is how we give the date its actual meaning, that of birth.