Holi-daze

Some wry words from my favorite preacher at St. Peter's (Fr. Bob Sprott, OFM are especially appropriate, after a movie-night conversation included serious worry that the language of Christmas is being forced out of public discourse...

I am not one of those who fiercely objects to the word Christmas being hased out of the public square during these months and being replaced with holiday. I do not at all buy the disingenuous protest that this is done for reasons of inclusivity and out of a spirit of sensitivity – the spirit of this is so obviously hostile to Christianity and resentful of that religion’s prominence in American life that it is pointless to either deny or argue about it – but neither am I all that upset that it has happened. If the culture I move in wants to go on a two-month binge of consumer spending and justify it by an appeal to some holiday, and if the mandarins of political correctness want to decree that this has nothing at all, not really, to do with the day that annually celebrates the birth of Christ, that’s fine by me. It impoverishes the popular culture and falsifies the historical record, but on the whole it seems that serious Christians are the better off for it. It reminds us that our true citizenship is in heaven. It also forces us to put forth a greater and more genuine effort to keep Christmas, to make room for the Christmas feast, in those spaces that we can yet call our own. If what is happening in the stores, schools, parks, civic centers, and other public places has nothing to do with us and our celebration of the Savior’s birth, then we know that our true center at this time will have to be located in our homes and in our parish churches.