Christmas is a mystery. The holiday evolves from a story which, over the centuries, has often been overshadowed by endless commercial appeals for presents, food, activities, along with some visual and cultural benchmarks for what constitutes home and hearth. More often than not the Christmas story itself gets rendered as nostalgic fantasy, because the many details surrounding the birth of Jesus don’t square up with our modern understanding of astronomy and biology. But we tell the story anyway, through hymns and pageants and creche scenes – the combination of which stir our longings and open our hearts to a measure of hope, peace, gratitude and joy.
Christmas evolves from a story, yes, but the story is wrapped in mystery: the mystery of a star moving across the sky, the mystery of angels singing, the mystery of a teenage virgin giving birth to a child, the mystery of that infant being a king whose throne is a straw-filled manger. The mystery of power emerging from vulnerability. The Christmas mystery is an invitation – to move from the world of the ego, where we spend so much of our time, to the realm of the soul.
The ego wants to solve mysteries. Figure them out. The soul invites us to continue to explore the mystery, which invariably leads us to more mystery. It is in this ongoing exploration of mystery that we discover the depth and power of love, the meaning of hope, and the presence of joy. For me, the Christmas story is an annual invitation to explore these timeless gifts, each of which, and all of which, are present in the soul.
The journey from ego to the soul is not an easy one to make, particularly because the world we live in is massively devoted to the presence, power and spread of the ego. Especially now. We are about to inaugurate Donald Trump as President, yes, but in many ways we will be enthroning an ego-in-chief, who promises dominance, certainty, and stability. About one third of the voting population is eager for his unyielding display of ego, which they expect will make America great again; another third is prepared for chaos, cruelty, and the diminishment, if not the dismissal, of democracy. And yet another third, some 90 million people, chose not to vote at all. Their priorities remain largely unkinown.
It needs to be said that the ego and soul are not separate arenas. They flow in and out of each other. We need the ego to organize our lives. We need the ego to strategize resistance if and when cruelty and chaos become more than threats. But that resistance will be ineffective, if not counterproductive, if it is fashioned out of fear and anger – which often are manifestations of a threatened or wounded ego. Resistance will need to emerge from the soul – from the place of mystery, and with conviction that reconciliation is possible. Hope, love and peace, along with light, which are the principal gifts of Christmas, emanate from the depth of the soul.
My faith has led me to believe that God stepped into the world by becoming incarnate in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. I don’t know how God did that, and I spend less and less time trying to square up all the details of his birth and Resurrection. What grounds me – and what guides me, is that the Christmas story is a soul story. It invites me – and all of us – to step into the realm of mystery, which can point us to ongoing discoveries of hope and peace. We each have a soul. The ancient story of Christmas invites us to rediscover that soul, and the gifts that can emerge from that holy place, which we need in order to effectively and lovingly address the pain, suffering and injustice of the world.
Merry Christmas.
