Editorial

By Paul Schratz

In just two weeks, a new liturgical year will begin, coinciding with that other great annual event, the Christmas shopping season.

For many, if not most of us, there’s a disconnect, a dilemma, between the season of goodwill and the preparation for Christmas that should be our focus, and the passionate shopping and extravagant gift-giving that goes along with it.

In recent years, the dilemma has been illustrated in the controversy over “Happy Holidays” versus “Merry Christmas,” and which one reigns as the favoured greeting among merchants.

Early reports this year indicate the pendulum is swinging back to the traditional, with an upsurge in Merry Christmas. However, the fact people are feeling less threatened about acknowledging Christmas as a primarily religious event doesn’t eliminate the dilemma; in fact it accentuates it. The lucre of Yuletide spending, with credit cards melting down and overdraft limits ramping up, is sending people into debt in order to outgive.

Christmas spending isn’t the only example of rampant consumerism and materialism affecting so much of our economy and society, but it’s a good one.

How many computers, plasma TVs, iPods, and video game systems will be purchased this Christmas at costs of hundreds or thousands of dollars?

The money spent on clothing, jewellery, and food comes close to making a mockery of the blessed season.

Just in time comes a reminder from Pope Benedict XVI that while we’re loving our neighbour, we can’t focus solely on those we routinely buy gifts for, while abandoning those who are starving.

Speaking on Italy’s Thanksgiving Day, the Pope took up the cause of the world’s hungry millions by reminding us that everyone has the responsibility of working for the elimination of hunger.

While newscasts and headlines these days treat climate change and global warming as the biggest concern in the world, the Pope identified the true essence of global stewardship: people.

Concern for the earth and environment is important and necessary, but many people have adopted the global warming issue with near religious fervour, treating the Kyoto agreement as something akin to the documents of the Second Vatican Council.

While stewardship is our duty, Pope Benedict used the occasion and its theme, “The Earth: a Gift for the Whole Human Family,” as a poignant reminder that the reason we must care for God’s great gift of the earth is because God’s greater gift of human beings are dependent on it.

While acknowledging “environmental and energy emergencies” in the world, the Pope called hunger “a tragedy” that despite all efforts to address it, “continues to be very grave always.”

“More than 800 million people live in a situation of malnutrition,” he said. “Too many people, especially children, die of hunger.”

What should really make Christmas excess a time of reflection is Pope Benedict’s concern about eliminating “the structural causes linked to the system of government of the world economy, which allocates the greater part of the planet’s resources to a minority of the population.”

In short, he said, we require conversion and to remind ourselves that it’s the responsibility of each person and family to “do something to alleviate hunger in the world.”

Using the day’s Gospel passage about the widow’s mite he called for the adoption of “a style of life and consumption compatible with the safeguarding of creation and with criteria of justice toward those who cultivate the land in every country.”

Appropriately, he also reminded crowds in St. Peter’s Square that God’s gifts should be received with tangible expressions of blessing, thanksgiving, and solidarity. This can be as simple as saying Grace before meals, with a blessing and thanks to God for our “daily bread.”

“We should get into the habit of blessing the Creator for each thing: for air and water, precious elements which are the foundation of life on our planet,” the Pope said, “as well as for food that, through the fecundity of the earth, God gives us for our sustenance.”

Giving thanks for what we have, and doing something concrete to share substantially with others: this is a Christmas message that will truly bring about happy holidays and a merry Christmas.