Christmas December 25, 2020
Fr. Albert St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette
What should I get them? Especially after a year like 2020, we’ve all asked this question countless times these past few months. What kind of gift is the best thing to give to my loved ones? How best to convey the love and hope they most need to receive? What makes for a good gift? Expensive? Thoughtful? Practical? Helpful?
Like most children, as a kid I often thought the most expensive gifts were the best. The Playstation 2… the new computer – knowing I couldn’t afford it with my allowance and that it wasn’t exactly cheap for my parents either, these brought serious excitement. And I spent incredible amounts of time with these gifts afterward.
I recently watched a video of a man who spent 8 months preparing a gift for a child with brain cancer. It involved a lot of planning and building, leading up to a surprise party designed to help the boy break a world record. What makes the gift awesome is not just the effort it took to make it happen, but also the way it demonstrated personal thoughtfulness. He picked a gift he knew the boy would appreciate because he knew him and his interests.
One of the best gifts I’ve ever received was something I didn’t appreciate in the moment; I didn’t realize how much I needed it. It was a nice set of luggage from my parents. Compared to the countless hours of playing games or surfing the internet, my 18 year old self thought the luggage was going to be a much smaller return on my parents’ investment. Guess what? That PlayStation and computer are long gone, but I still have the luggage. I don’t remember the number of times I’ve been grateful for that luggage I didn’t know I needed.
Just about every year, you hear the story of some generous wealthy person who decides to give the gift of financial freedom for Christmas. Well-off individuals who patrol the mall, randomly giving $100 bills to people. A business owner who walks into a store and pays off everyone else’s layaway items. A billionaire who pays off the medical or student debt of whole groups of people. In each case, the actual cost to the person is insignificant compared to their wealth, but of incomparable value to the one receiving it. Being freed of these burdens is a gift worth more than just the dollar amount it took to get there.
So, which one makes for the best kind of present? All of them. At least, inasmuch as each one indicates a real sense of love and affection, they accomplish their intended goal. An expensive gift tells someone you see them as valuable. A thoughtful gift shows someone you know them and their interests. A practical gift – one that gives something they don’t even realize they need – shows that you know them and their needs in a way they themselves may not. A liberating gift – one that lifts some burden from the other person – shows that you value an important part of what makes them human, their freedom.
So, it is fitting that during Christmas we express our love in these various ways within reason and our own personal limits. Yet, the real point of Christmas is not what we give each other, but what God has given us. In every category of giving, the gift we celebrate tonight/day exceeds anything we could hope to accomplish.
In terms of sheer value, this child in the crib is quite literally infinite. God himself takes on a human nature, allowing human hands to hold the one who holds the whole universe in his hands. When it comes to thoughtfulness and planning, who can compare? “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.” From the very dawn of creation, God planned to give us his own son. He spent literally billions of years guiding the universe to form our solar system, our planet, and life on this planet. Taking that material, he breathed his own life into it, giving the gift of a rational and immortal soul. Immediately, he formed a covenant and, when that covenant was broken, he began thousands of years of preparation to give us the remedy to that brokenness. Noah, Abraham, Moses, David down to Joseph and his wife Mary through whom he has given us this gift that proves he doesn’t just know us, he is one of us.
And what could be more practical? More than luggage or handy gadgets, the ability to overcome sin and death is what we need most, whether we know it or not. That gift comes only through Jesus Christ, born for us this night/day. Like my younger self, we so often fail to realize it’s value because we foolishly compare it to more entertaining, but ultimately less useful things. If there is any good to be seen in this tumultuous year, it is in the realization of just how fragile and broken things are in this world. It is the chance to realize that the thing we need most is not a thing at all, but a person.
And of course, who but God alone could give real freedom? This child, because he is human, can act on our behalf to pay back the infinite debt of our sins against an infinitely good God. Because he is God, he can afford that infinite debt. Without going into debt himself, Jesus pays off the debt of sin, giving us true freedom. Not the freedom to do whatever we want – that just makes us slaves of our own fickle, untrustworthy desires and feelings. No, he gives us the freedom to be who we truly are, to be good, to love and be loved.
Because every dimension of this gift is ordered towards freedom, we must make a free response. A game that is not played is wasted. A game played too much is abusive. God has given us many good things which we are right to use and enjoy in moderation. Make a return on the gifts of God by using them well and by showing gratitude for them.
A party unattended is pointless. We celebrate and rejoice tonight in a special way, but this is not a one-time party. Every week, every day even, we are invited to a party eternally prepared just for us, the feast of his body and blood.
Empty luggage does nothing. This feast nourishes the soul, allowing us to fill our poverty and emptiness with eternal glory. I’ve spoken of joy through poverty and this is the secret to that Joy – to be filled with God. As this year has proven to many of us, everything we have can be taken away and fall apart. But nothing can take God away from a soul filled with faith. And we see glimpses of this even in our human research. Not surprisingly, mental health declined across the country this year on average in every demographic. Well, every group except one: weekly churchgoers. Those who fill themselves with God on a regular basis are more likely to thrive even in trying times.
Paid debts are forgotten when new debts are formed. Original sin and all sin is wiped away by baptism, venial sins are forgiven in communion, but each new mortal sin plunges us back into spiritual debt. This is a fate worse than death that we must fight to avoid. But, unlike the one-time payment of a philanthropist, God will pay every debt every time you ask in confession. He is merciful, but he does not forgive those who presume they don’t need to ask. Continue to ask, continue to seek confession so you may continue to receive forgiveness and freedom.
Expensive, thoughtful, practical, and liberating. Such are the qualities of the best presents. Such is the reality of this child asleep in a manger, the presence of God among us. He gave us all we have, what could we possibly give in return? What should we get for the God who has everything? Something valuable to him, thought of by him, provided for by him, freed by him. Yourself.