LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: SEARCH FOR THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS

To the editor:

Mental depression at Christmastime is often very painful. There is a bewilderment as to why one feels so depressed. The perceived reasons for depression are varied. With many, it is just a matter of not feeling happy at a time when everyone has a RIGHT to be happy.

Some thoughts on the subject kept racing around in my mind, so I decided to give myself a break and put them on paper.

I hope I have treated certain sensitive matters in a way that is not offensive.

I wish to you and all your family the blessings of Love, Joy and Peace at Christmas.

My appreciation for the new look of The Missourian continues to grow.

MSGR. JOSEPH E. GOSCHE

Pastor

St. Michael Church

Fredericktown

THE SEARCH FOR THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS

It is predictable that in newspring and by radi and television attention will be called to a particular stress that seemingly is experienced by growing numbers of people during the Christmas/ Holiday Season. "Christmas/Holiday Season" denotes a contributing cause of the stress, which results from a longing to be happy during the Christmas/Holiday Season. It is difficult to identify with a celebration that is both a special birthday and a season; which is deeply religious and at the same time profoundly secular. How can one lay hold of the Spirit of Christmas? It is a crucial question, because to fail can result in a painful feeling of loneliness and exclusion.

There was a time when Christmas was the celebration of the birth of Jesus, Savior. It was at the Christ-Mass, perhaps at midnight on Christmas Eve or on Christmas Day that people of faith began the joyful celebration. In the act of worship the Christian rejoiced in a personal encounter with Christ, Savior. It was a true encounter and not merely a fond remembering. The joy of Christmas was too great to be in capsuled in a one-day celebration, so the Twelve Days of Christmas prolonged the celebration until the Epiphany, on which day Jesus manifested himself to Gentile Wise Men.

Events of history have brought us to the laudable cultural practice of celebrating Christmas Day by participating in family and community gatherings, but without an encounter with Jesus the celebrity in worship. It would be impossible to assess the magnitude of the effect of that development.

As the emphasis in our society has changed from celebrating the birthday of Jesus to social gathering, worship has been greatly diminished and replaced with secular rituals.

Four weeks of Advent preparation for the celebration of the Christ-Mass has given way to a long and yet longer period of Christmas Holiday activities, most of which are concluded by Christmas Eve. Increasingly we buy just an evergreen. We send holiday greetings. We buy Holiday gifts and gift wrap, and decorate with Holiday lights. We take Holiday vacations. What is celebrated at the Christ-Mass has little if any bearing on those activities, and for some the "reason for the Season" is all but forgotten if it was ever known. Secular activities can provide personal enjoyment, but they cannot put one in touch with the Spirit of Love and Joy and Peace that is the Spirit of Christmas.

It would be unjustifiable to attribute to the secular news media and the entertainment industry the cause for our changing ways of observing the Christmas/Holiday Season. Yet, they do play a role. In our pluralistic society there are persons who do not relate to Christmas because of their religious beliefs or lack of them. They must be somehow accommodated. All public institutions and agencies should be sensitive to that situation. Yet, Christians are often offended -- and rightly, when their celebration of Christmas, and its symbols are exploited and even profaned by persons who lack religious sensitivity.

The Spirit of Christmas can be diminished in Christians who suffer the loss of their right to joyfully, publicly celebrate Christmas, when civil government suppresses that right perhaps seeking, but failing to strike a balance between tolerance and advocacy of religious expression.

The early days of television found in religion the plot and substance for much programing. This was particularly true at Christmas time. Perhaps the traditional popular perception and practice of Christmas was sometimes given disproportionate time and emphasis, but the pendulum has swung very far in the other direction -- as pendulums often do, and it has become difficult today to find television programing that embodies the Spirit of Christmas. The communications media and the entertainment industry vigorously support the observance of the Holiday Season, and participate handsomely in its financial productiveness. The celebration of Christmas receives minimal attention, yet it perpetuates an awareness of a world-event having eternal consequences.

Those who read these comments will surely differ profoundly in their perception of the Christmas/Holiday Season; nevertheless, the Day and the Season ought to be marked with a certain joy that is called the Spirit of Christmas. It is rooted in Love, and it is productive of Peace and Joy. For those who are searching, a simple request made in the quiet of the depths of the heart, of Him whose birth has occasioned the Christmas/Holiday Season might very well result in some degree of sharing in that longed for Spirit of Christmas.

MSGR. JOSEPH E. GOSCHE

Fredericktown