Party Animals and Teeth Gritters

Some people do not celebrate God and His gifts, including the gift of Jesus Christ, at all. They celebrate carnal pleasures and fleshly lusts. They may have a lot of fun, but authentic joy eludes them. They come to the end of the “holiday season” completely burnt out, while craving more of the same because what they got, whatever it was, was certainly not enough. And, in any case, it’s now over and gone.

Others come to the festal season with the firm intention to celebrate God’s gift of the Savior. They are super-serious. They clench their fists and grit their teeth, determined to keep it “religious” and “spiritual.” But when the season is over they are left empty and dead because they have spent their energies looking at others, condemning their foolish behavior, and becoming miserable because of it. Such people are those who instead of filling the human joys of the season with the divine grace of the Lord, ruin the holy time for themselves and their families and friends by cursing the “secularism” and “commercialism” which has infected the feast, instead of blessing God and enjoying the festival for what it really is. While berating their fellows for not “keeping Christ in Christmas,” they have actually excluded Him from their own celebration by their Pharisaic self-righteousness and condemnation of their brothers and sisters for whom Christ has come and for whom He has died, whether they know it or not.

Part 2 of an excerpt from “Let Us Celebrate, O People!”, Fr. Hopko, Winter Pascha

I almost wanted to call the “others” Scrooges — the bah humbug! people. But they are not. Scrooge didn’t care for the religious angle at all. He didn’t want to have any kind of a holiday. The “others” Fr. Hopko talks about are the moralistic types, the judgmental types, who want the right thing, sort of, but can’t “just do it” as Nike would advise. They’ve got to make sure everybody else is doing it right first.

I don’t know where I fit in. I bounce around between different groups in my mixed-up attitude towards Christmas. Basically, I guess I just want everybody to be happy, and do the really good thing (praise God for sending His Son). And I want to fit in myself with all those good and happy people. Can’t we all be good and happy together? :) I don’t really want to moralize, but I get frustrated when people are neither good, nor happy… and so I can’t seem to find a way to be good or happy myself (being too dependent on what’s going on with people around me). If I let frustration with the whole “scene” really get to me, then I end by playing Scrooge. Bah! Humbug!

Oh well, never mind. Lord have mercy. Most Holy Theotokos, save us! St. Nick? You on the beat, fella? Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus! (And hurry.)