The day my daddy sat me down and told me that the true meaning of Christmas was celebrating Jesus’ birthday, not gifts. Community of Matthew

Contemporary christian philosophy: Shop 'til you drop

I always knew that when my daddy took me into my bedroom to talk, I would learn something. As a nine-year-old, I was obsessing about what I wanted for Christmas: A complete football uniform, with helmet and shoulder pads. 

His first part of this talk was practical: Since I would be the only kid in my class you had a helmet and shoulder pads, I could never use them. Wouldn’t it be better to wait until my friends also had football equipment? Like in high school?

I agreed. 

Then, he got down to business.

The lesson about Jesus’ birthday

The next part was somewhat expected. Before he even started this, I told him that I knew that there was no Santa Claus. That made it somewhat easier. 

However, he then went to the step that he wanted to emphasize. That Christmas was not about Santa Claus or gifts, but that it was Jesus’ birthday. He was the one who should be given the gifts on Christmas, not the little children. 

My father was a devout Catholic, and he stressed that all of this emphasis on gifts took away from the true meaning of Christmas. That we should not be obsessed with gifts — though he did not use that verb — but should be doing what I was going to do for the first time that year. 

The Christmas vigil

On Christmas Eve, our parish had a midnight mass, and for the first time, I would be allowed to attend it. That was because I was now a member of the St. Brigid’s boy’s choir, which performed at the mass. 

It was a big deal. We had special surpluses that had red woven into them. We wore stiff white collars, and the nuns tied beautiful red bows as ties to make us look really angelic. 

We would march down the aisle, then take a turn to the left and line up in front of the large manger. There we would sing those wonderful Christmas songs. 

“O Holy Night” was my favorite, but I also loved the Latin “Adeste Fideles,” which is “O Come All ‘ye Faithful.”

This was the true meaning of Christmas, celebrating the birth of Jesus. Not that stupid football uniform that I wanted. 

Christians’ contemporary "Shop til you drop" philosophy

So, that is why I cringe when I hear some many “Christians” complain about putting Christ back into Christmas, which is commendable, and then preach the prosperity gospel and talk about shopping, shopping, shopping. 

My dad told me during this discussion that Jesus, Mary, and Joseph were so poor that they could not pay for a room in the inn, which is not exactly what the contemporary story is. 

“There was no room at the inn” could be better interpreted as “Joseph was poor and could not afford to pay for a place in the inn.”

Joseph was a poor carpenter, which is probably why God chose his wife to be, Mary, to be the mother of Jesus. The idea of a poor person serving as the father of Jesus was not be accident. 

Jesus preached about that later in the Beatitudes. “Blessed are the poor in spirit … “

Certainly not an endorsement of the prosperity gospel, which I will address in another column. 

Lesson

Yes, America should put Christ back into Christmas, but we have to acknowledge what Pope Francis has been saying: Jesus and capitalism are not compatible. The rush for excessive riches is not what God wanted with his people. 

My father was right to teach me about the real meaning of Christmas, that it was about Jesus’ birthday and not about the stupid football uniform that I wanted. 

To this day, I have no idea what I received for Christmas that year, though it was not a football uniform. What I know is that is was not important. However, it was still appreciated since I learned a lesson much more important than any tangible item.