As we gather on this Christmas Eve, I have an important question to
ask all of you. “Have you got your Christmas shopping done?” You
certainly should have. You’ve had since Thanksgiving. In some cases,
you had since Halloween. (It started then in some places.) And that’s
something new in the life of the Christian believers. Certainly new
in every other country of the world, except the United States, where
they celebrate the twelve days of Christmas. You can celebrate them
if you come back tomorrow, with Father Aidan. He’ll get you up and
down, Catholic aerobics and singing the “Twelve Days of Christmas.”
So, you might want to come back just for that. But, much of the world
begins Christmas season tomorrow on Christmas Day. It goes twelve
days until the feast of the Epiphany of Jesus. And until then, until
today, tomorrow morning, there is no shopping. There are no Christmas
carols and there are no cards allowed to be sent. The Twelve Days of
Christmas begin tomorrow on Christmas Day.

Now, in the United States, we feel different about that. In fact, we
have figured out why the Magi, the Three Wise Men, didn’t arrive
until January 6th. They were waiting for the sales the morning after
Christmas. Actually, if you have to place blame for that shift from
the Twelve Days of Christmas to this long shopping period, there are
two people I would blame. One is Charles Dickens in the Christmas
Carol when they had to get ready and even get out and buy a goose and
everything in order to be ready for Christmas. That became very
popular. And the other one is Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Under the
direct direction of business people at that time he made the feast of
Thanksgiving to be permanent, to be on the fourth weekend of
November, passed in Congress in 1942 specifically so we could have
more time to go shopping. That was the intention. There was no
question about it at the time. So, it’s pretty easy to say that
Christmas has become too commercial, too greedy and too selfish. But
I would add a footnote.

I would disagree because I think the question we ask in getting ready
for Christmas is usually not “What will I get?” The question is “What
can I give?” Our energy is spent for others. Our spending is because
of others. Our exhaustion is for others. And that’s the Christmas
secret: to be for others. And the Christmas secret is out, but along
with it comes a Christmas challenge, the challenge to transfer that
mindset and that secret to the whole year and to our whole lives and
to the whole world. So we have to ask the question, “What then can we
give?”

What, then, can we give? I know there are a lot of answers. Let me
suggest a few. What can we give? Can we give forgiveness? There is so
much anger in the world, and in our hearts. So much road rage... so
much revenge... so much “Let’s get even.” ... so much “It’s payback
time” The one healing, healthy, wholesome gift we can give to
ourselves and to others is forgiveness. What, then, can we give? How
about forgiveness?

What, then, can we give? How about understanding? We sometimes see
someone who is poor and down and in bad shape and we say, “There but
for the grace of God go I.” That’s true, and it shows an
understanding compassionate heart. But I think we reserve it for
certain people. We kind of like them, or they have nothing to do with
us and will not bother us, our economy, or our politics or our lives
in any way. There but for the grace of God go I. I think we have to
apply it to everyone. We have to apply it to those who are needy,
those who are unemployed, those who are immigrants, whether legal or
not, those who have a different lifestyle than we, a different faith
than we, a different race than we, a different nation from ours. Can
we give understanding?

What, then, can we give? Could we give the greatest gift of all, to
make a difference in the world... to make a difference, because
that’s certainly the message of Christmas? Jesus Christ came and made
a difference. Now, we have to be careful when we announce that to
anybody, that the coming of Jesus and then the followers of Jesus
made a difference in the world, because there is such a thing as
“toxic religion.” There is such a thing as a toxic, unhealthy
following of Jesus, and there has been plenty of it to go around.
Following of Jesus, for some people, has led to religious wars, has
led to the Inquisition.... We can make a list. Let me give you the
list. It led to the Crusades. It led to Galileo being condemned. It
led to the mistreatment of natives and indigenous people. It led to
support of the South, slavery. It led to support of anti-Semitism. It
led to tolerating and fueling racism. It led to discrimination
against women. I am accusing Christianity and the Catholic Church of
that when it is toxic. Now, if you don’t like my list, you can look
it up. It’s the list that the Pope used, Pope John Paul II, in
apologizing for specific things that the toxic following of Jesus has
led to.

But when we follow Jesus in a faithful way, in a healthy way, in the
way that keeps honest following of the mind of Jesus, then it has
been the impetus that led to the abolition of slavery. It has led to
Civil Rights movements. It has led to prison reform. I don’t know if
you have noticed but in our lifetime, across the world, in almost
every civilized nation except one that I can think of, it has led to
removing capitol punishment. I can think of one that still has it. It
has led to fighting the unholy union between Church and State. It has
led to freedom of speech and freedom of conscience. There was a
popular writer. He was an agnostic. He was a Communist. Then he was
converted to Christianity and finally converted to being a Catholic,
Malcolm Muggeridge. And he said, “It’s really strange. I think
Unitarians and Humanists are wonderful people but you don’t run into
them in Leprosariums.” It brings you the image of followers of Jesus
being faithful, the image of hospitals, orphanages, services during
plagues, Hospice for AIDS victims, education of the poor and
missionary work for service, not for conversion.

Well, I want to share something with you. It’s a paragraph from an
Irish writer. He was an only child, Frank O’Connor, and he wrote a
book called “The Only Child.” I think it reminds us that healthy
generosity and true religion is planted in our hearts at an early age
by God. We are reminded of it by the birthday of Christ. And we are
taught it by the wisdom, the death and the resurrection of Jesus. And
he writes this:

“One Christmas, Santa Claus brought me a toy engine. I took it with
me to the convent and played with it while mother and the nuns
discussed old times. But it was a young nun who took me in to see the
crib. When I saw the Holy Child in the manger, I was distressed
because, little as I had, he had nothing at all. For me, it was fresh
proof of the incompetence of Santa Claus. I asked the young nun
politely if the Holy Child didn’t like toys, and she replied, “Oh, he
does, but his mother was too poor to afford them.” That settled it!
My mother was poor too, but at Christmas she at least managed to buy
me something, even if it was only a box of crayons. I distinctly
remember getting into the crib and putting the engine between his
outstretched arms. I probably showed him how to wind it as well
because a small baby like that would not be clever enough to know
how. I remember too that tearful feeling of reckless generosity with
which I left him there in the nightly darkness of the chapel,
clutching my toy engine to his chest.”

May we be a people who ask the Christmas question: What, then, can we
give? And may we learn to say “yes” to God’s call each day and
experience that same feeling of reckless generosity. Amen.