Remember the Gift of Christmas
I’d like to begin today’s reflection with a story… I read somewhere that both the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea are formed by the same water supply. It flows down, cool and clear from Mount Hermon. The Sea of Galilee is gorgeous and pristine. I have eaten fish, part of the abundant life in the Sea of Galilee. This Sea has an outlet: its waters flow out and fertilize the Jordan plain.
The Dead Sea, on the other hand, with the same source of refreshing water, is desolate, for the Dead Sea has no outlet. It only gets to keep. I once went swimming in the Dead Sea. There was such a high content of salt, that you can’t sink! But then, someone kicked the water, which got into my eye, and I couldn’t wipe it out because I was covered in salt water. And it stung! But the point is that the Dead Sea has no outlet. It cannot give; it only gets to keep.
The article I was reading suggested that selfish and unselfish people can act in much the same way. Unselfish people can give and luxuriate in their generosity, while selfish people only get to keep—and can stagnate as a result.
At this time of gift giving, I noted an interesting cartoon in the newspaper earlier this week. It’s called the “Lockhorns” and it’s about a husband and wife who are constantly fighting, and not even counseling seems to help. In this particular scene, the wife is bringing a shirt to the cashier. He asks her, “Would you like something nicer, or is this for your husband?”
How different is one of my favorite stories, O Henry’s “Gift of the Magi”. The main theme of this story by O. Henry is that giving is the greatest gift of all. It’s about a married couple very much in love who want to give a special gift to each other. Della gives up her most cherished possession, her beautiful hair, to get a gift for her husband, Jim. She buys him a fob for his favorite possession--a pocket watch. But Jim sells his pocket watch to buy beautiful combs for Della to adorn her hair!
The beauty, I think, is the kind of tragic impracticality of the outcome of the gift-giving. Each gives up a most favored possession that, in both cases is lost. And what they are left with is a total gift of self to each other.
Our gift-giving at Christmas can be, at its best, an expression of the love, esteem and respect that we have for another person. But what our Scripture readings throughout this Advent and Christmas Season invite us to reflect on the incredible gift giving that is flying all over the place in the Christmas story.
God gives us the greatest treasure of God’s heart: God’s only Son. During this Year of the Eucharist, we are reminded that the gift of the Son continues giving, so that we might have communion—union of mind and heart with our God and with each other. Mary gives the gift of agreeing to God’s very unorthodox plan by saying yes to a miraculous pregnancy. Joseph gives Mary and Jesus the gift of not divorcing Mary and becoming the faithful guardian, the totally committed husband and foster-father. Mary gives her cousin Elizabeth the gift of visiting to see if she can help the older woman who was thought to be barren, and to share the good news of what God was doing in their lives. And the Bible makes clear that the birth of Jesus at Christmas is meant for all people: from the wealthy magi to the poorest shepherds, from the chosen people of Israel, out to all the peoples and nations of the world.
So, I would suggest two things for you to consider this week. First, let us not forget the original, spiritual basis of gift-giving at this time of year; let us, as the saying goes, “Keep Christ in Christmas”—these spiritual roots can be so easily lost, and Christmas can be turned into a madhouse of commercialism and excess. And second, let us remember how to give gifts—not as a begrudging duty, but as an act of love, an act of gratitude, in honor of the Supreme Gift that is at the heart of our celebration of Christmas.