Why Celebrate
Christmas?
Who, Scrooge or worshipper alike, doesn’t bristle at the
commercialization of Christmas? It is so easy and so common to want to chuck it
all out the window and into the trash. On reflection, however, doesn’t that
simply put the nail in the Christmas spirit’s coffin? Why invest in materialism
by essentially agreeing that there’s nothing sacred about Christmas?
Instead, why not search for how to express that spirit in
ways that are authentic to you? And, given the familial and communal nature of
that spirit, why not share your celebration with others of like-mind?
It feels slightly silly to attempt to define the Christmas
spirit, but our world is closing in on us and in America and in so many
countries our lives at home, at work and in the shops and marts are shared with
people of other faiths or of no faith. Not only therefore might Christians stop
to consider what Christmas is all about but how can everyone find inspiration
from its universal message.?
I suppose I ought to ask whether it has a universal message?
Is the birth of Jesus Christ an event only of interest to Christians? Generally
speaking, Christian teachings hold that Jesus Christ is the world’s only savior
and belief in the redemptive power of his death on the cross and the glory of
his resurrection thereafter are the hallmarks of Christian faith. But this blog
article will end up being a book if I head off in earnest in that direction.
So, instead, let me say that …
As a yogi and a follower of the teachings of India
(especially as brought to the West in modern times by Paramhansa Yogananda), I
am not alone in espousing the view that saints and saviors have come to this
earth down through the ages in all faith traditions and that the greatest of
these are all “sons of God” as was Jesus Christ. They come to remind us that
we, too, are that, and that our lives in human bodies are given us that we too
might become Self-realized in God as are the masters in every religion.
There is, however, another aspect of universality that
millions recognize, even setting aside the specifics of the meaning of Jesus
Christ’s incarnation on earth. The Christmas spirit is one of giving and
sharing. Christmas is a celebration of the Golden Rule of life and of the
kinship of life that all nations, races, people, and faiths share. That surely
is worth affirming in this world of troubles, is it not?
Though I can’t give specifics, perhaps you, too, have seen
movies or read stories of how during World War I and/or II, soldiers stopped
fighting on Christmas Day and shared in some way across their battle lines. How
many children stories exist with tales of how the humblest child or animal had
a gift to offer the baby Jesus? In that little form we pay homage to the life
we all share, for in that light we are One and we are children of our one,
Father-Mother God.
Even atheists and agnostics can celebrate the humanity and
harmony exemplified in the Golden Rule.
Candlelight symbolizes, inter alia, that at the darkest hour
of life (winter solstice of the northern hemisphere) there remains this light
of eternal life, like the seed buried and unseen in the winter ground but which
bursts forth in the Spring. In celebrating light in its many forms (colored
Christmas lights, candles and so on) we share a universal symbol of hope that
the sunlight of vitality and healing will once again rise.
The spiritual interpretations of this light, of which Jesus
was a human representative, include the teaching that this light is the light
of the soul, as a reflection of the Infinite Light of God. This Light exists
eternally behind the darkness of ignorance and materialism, and at the still
center of all matter. This eternal Light is the promise of our immortality which
has its Being in our souls, not in our physical bodies.
Let us therefore celebrate this Light which “shines in the
darkness, though the darkness comprehended it not.” Let us celebrate our
kinship with each other, with all creatures, and with all life. Let us affirm
that we are children of the Infinite Light and that all distinctions of race,
nation or faith are but constructs of the limits of the human intellect and but
constrictions upon the natural love of the heart. “Hear O Israel, the Lord, the
Lord our God, is ONE!
One week from today at the Ananda
Meditation Temple in Bothell, Nayaswami Jamuna Snitkin presents a 3-hour
workshop on this subject, “Why Celebrate Christmas.” Saturday, December 8, 9:30
a.m. http://www.anandawashington.org/classes/art-of-living-classes/
Look forward, too, to a series of blog
articles inspired by the faiths of Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism,
Christianity and Self-realization on the universal theme and celebration of
Light.
