Chrismas gatherings can spark conversations at many levels – past, present, and future.
Questions about Christmas Past
- What was your most favorite Christmas gift that you received?
- What was your most memorable Christmas ever? What made it so memorable?
- What were your family’s Christmas traditions?
- What foods do you associate with Christmas?
- What part did the birth of Jesus play in your family’s celebration?
The challenge of Christmas present
Here is a challenge question perhaps best answered privately.
Yes, the birth of Christ 2000 years changed the course of history. What counts today is whether each of us gives birth to Christ in us. The challenge of Christmas is rooted in a belief that you and I become the body of Christ today.
It is not so important that people know we are Christians by our baptismal certificate or a perfect Sunday Mass attendance.
The most important question for me is whether others experience I am Christian by my respect and love for them… especially those who are different or even those who harm me. That’s what Jesus did every day!
How do we keep Christ in Christmas?
It is not merely by saying Merry Christmas.
The real challenge is to wake up to realize we, male and female, adult and child, give birth to Christ in our actions.
I personally believe we keep Christ in Christmas whenever WE give birth to Christ in us.
Blessing for Christmas Future
St. Paul blesses us … “May God who began a good work in you carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 1:6
That’s another way of saying that birthing Christ in our lives is an ongoing process!
Click below for an early audio version of the Vincentian Mindwalk
This one verse of “O Little Town of Bethlehem” (poem by Philip Brooks) always speaks volumes to me:
O holy Child of Bethlehem,
Descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our sin and enter in,
Be born in us today.
We hear the Christmas angels
The great glad tidings tell:
Oh, come to us, abide with us,
Our Lord Immanuel!
Except for those “Christmas angels” it could easily have been an Advent hymn.
Blessed Christmas Season!
Thank you, Fr. John, for this beautiful Mindwalk which I shared with some friends in Holland, in Portugal, and here in the U.S., in Washington State.
Yes, I love this giving “birth to Christ in our actions”! Good way to keep Christ in Christmas (and always!).
And what you say: “…The most important question for me is whether others experience I am Christian by my respect and love for them… especially those who are different or even those who harm me. That’s what Jesus did every day!”, may remain branded in my heart and mind for the rest of my life.
Merry Christmas to you and all those who follow the Mindwalk!
“How do we keep Christ in Christmas?”
What comes to mind, John, is Vincent’s advice, which I realize I must keep and reflect on, that I remember (make it part or member of myself) that I live in Jesus Christ by his death. This, of course, challenges me to die in him by his life, to keep my life hidden in him and full of him, and to live like him, so as to die like him.
It’s my hope, and prayer, that this reminder will lead me to help make Christ, God’s presence and love, be with us in the world in a more noticeable and palpable way, notwithstanding that currently three-in-ten U.S. adults are religious “nones” (Pew).