CHRISTMAS has been stolen—not
only by the Grinch, but also by
the commercial merchandisers.
With its own music, colors, foods,
customs, and expectations, this holiday
season is shared by believers and nonbelievers.
Some believers campaign to “Put
Christ Back in Christmas!” Unfortunately, the
cultural expectations and expenses of the holiday
season often bring stress to believers and
nonbelievers alike. What can save us from the
commercial trivialities that crowd this great
feast? How can it lead us to peace rather than
to exasperation? What does the mystery of
Christmas mean for us today?
St. Francis of Assisi (1181–1226) was an
enthusiastic champion of Christmas, the birthday
of his leader and Lord, his inspiration and
companion. In his account of St Francis’ life,
Thomas of Celano, who knew the saint,
describes an interesting interaction between the
beloved saint and one of the early friars,
Brother Morico.
“Francis observed the birthday of the child
Jesus with inexpressible eagerness over all
other feasts, saying, ‘It is the feast of feasts, on
which God, having become a tiny infant, clung
to human breasts.’ When the question rose
about eating meat that day, since Christmas
was a Friday, he [Francis] replied to Brother
Morico, ‘You sin, brother, calling the day on
which the child is born to us a day of fast. It
is my wish that even the walls should eat meat
on such a day; and if they cannot, they should
be smeared with meat on the outside.’”
On Christmas, Francis wanted the poor and
the hungry to be filled by the rich; he said that
more than the usual amount of grain and hay
should be given to oxen and asses. “‘If I could
speak to the emperor, I would ask that a general
law be made that all who can should scatter
corn and grain along the roads so that the
birds might have an abundance of food on that
day of such great solemnity, especially our sisters
the larks’” (2 Celano, 199–200).
