Christmas day and all the days of the Christmas season provide an opportunity to gather with family and friends to celebrate this “most wonderful time of the year.” The giving and receiving of gifts have become the defining moment among all the other activities associated with the birth of Christ. Bumper stickers and magnetic signs urge us to “keep Christ in Christmas” against a backdrop of frantic retail activity and wholesale commercialism.
How do love and forgiveness factor into the hustle and bustle that precedes December 25th? Jesus, the “reason for the season,” has plenty to tell us in scripture about the danger of placing temporal goods above eternal values:
Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me. But he said to him, “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?” And he said to them, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” Then he told them a parable: “The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:13-21)
The above pericope begins with a squabble over wealth and ends with a stern warning about “storing up treasure” here on Earth while not being “rich toward God.” The depression that has become a hallmark of family gatherings stems from old wounds and overblown expectations that inevitably rear their ugly heads during this time of year. Love and forgiveness take a back seat to a kind of manufactured happiness that is supposed to take place around the tree.
Beneath the surface, there is often a slow boil that turns into an eruption spilling over into the festivities. The platitude “Eat, drink, and be merry,” while seemingly a prescription for holiday pleasure, doesn’t address the deep needs of the soul that only love, coupled with forgiveness can provide. The debts we incur buying presents for Christmas can be shoved aside until sometime in the new year. The debts that involve apologizing for past hurts are sometimes written off as a loss and buried deep within our psyches.
Each year, we are given an abundance of opportunities to give and receive forgiveness. It is at the very heart of The Lord’s Prayer. We ask for God’s forgiveness for our trespasses, and through the power of that forgiveness, we can forgive others. If we withhold our forgiveness, we subject ourselves to the “torture” that is referred to in the sobering comparison that Jesus offers in the following:
[Jesus said:] “For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. When he began the reckoning, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him and, as he could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions, and payment to be made. So the slave fell on his knees before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ And out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released him and forgave him the debt. But that same slave, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and seizing him by the throat, he said, ‘Pay what you owe.’ Then his fellow slave fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ But he refused; then he went and threw him into prison until he would pay the debt. When his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their lord all that had taken place. Then his lord summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?’ And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he would pay his entire debt. So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.” (Matthew 18:23-35)
Let us pray for the grace to seek God’s forgiveness this Christmas season, and for the grace to forgive others from our hearts.
