St. Paul's Episcopal: What Christmas Means In Today's World

By Rev. Laina Wood Casillas
Deacon, St. Paul's Episcopal Church

There is something eternal about Christmas, which all the dazzling commerce blaring away at our senses this time of year cannot dispel. Something wonderful, and imperishable, and which seeks to touch the human heart.

Some deep experiences of the spirit are very real - and they communicate
themselves, they cast their light into the future.  The lasting goodness of
Christmas is such an experience.

To look at "What Christmas Means Today" depends upon your viewpoint, to
some extent.

If you're looking at it from a business perspective, it means profit,
opportunity, or perhaps some desperate hope of turning fortune.

From a social perspective, it means a time of renewing friendships, honoring
family, the sharing of joyful times together.  From a cultural perspective,
it means a great merry stew of traditions from round the world -- here in
America anyway. In America, we bring the touchstones of our heritage to hearth and home, we shout our gladness in these things to the streets.

But, ah, from our personal perspectives there comes alight a kaleidoscope of
feelings and meaning which approach the reality of Christmas.

As the season surrounds us,  we find thoughts come to mind in a way they
usually don’t in our everyday doings.  Thoughts of the delightful… the
excitement of children, the planned gatherings of family and friends.
Loneliness… in that quality of silence only felt  amid  sounds of people
connected to others by affection.  Remembrances…of past laughter, of wonders and discovery and surprise.  Empty frenzy… lurching through a million errands for demanding trifles soon to be forgotten.  Pain… those far-away hurts floating randomly to rest upon a moment, descending through the music and colors of the season to remind us, wincing, of ancient wounds still tender at the touch.  Sheer, exhilarating fun… laughing, and special
treats, and the release of bright spirits in a welcoming season.

We find ourselves holding a thought for present brethren, not often found
among our daily concerns - care for a stranger; noticing how bitter cold
is, and wondering how those without shelter fare this night; trying to
imagine how it feels to be really hungry.

We visit memories of cozy, exhausted contentment after the celebrations of Christmas Day.  Impulses to compassion suddenly become compelling, and make us smile within. Winter blooms in a thousand fields of kindness and charity, unseen in the daily grind of the usual throughout the year, now suddenly springing to our consciousness, and conscience… it feels good, to look upon these graces and find our way to respond.

Reflections of the best hopes for how we are called to be with one another dance upon the surface of the gifts we give and receive; they light upon the music which lingers in our memories and the air; they touch all the little things we make and the delight of simply making others happy.  We who seek to follow the Christ revel in the deep spiritual gifts of Christmas, and in the faith which makes our lives possible.  

In the message of love at the very center of this time, we find a candle in
the darkness, and we reach for it, to hold aloft in these days of our doings.
We let the light of it warm the everyday corners of our mind.  There is
something… luminous about Christmas.

It brings light upon good and upon shabbiness, it makes visible both grime and grace.  Within it we find meaning, and gladness, and somehow, hope for ourselves, for the world, for times to come.  We each place that candle in the colored window of our life, with all its individual perspectives and patterns - and in its radiance we see our blessings, our gratitude, our failings and hurts, our sins and our secret goodness, our cherished shards of innocence, our love for each other, our need for one another.  

The meaning of Christmas, the one which lingers and lives anew each year,
is that of the better angels of our hearts.  The image of a child of promise, bringing light into the world with a divine message of the transcendent power of love.  The message of peace, and kindliness toward one another; of courage and hope and purpose to be found in the time of our days.  

And the assurance that in the qualities of goodness held before us and laid
in a long-ago manger, there is comfort and joy for all the world.

St. Paul's Episcopal Church is located at 1924 Trinity Ave. in Walnut Creek