The start of December often serves to remind me that I need to get a move on with my Christmas shopping, with the big day only a few weeks away. Perhaps it’s the same for you, unless of course you’ve done everything well in advance this year!
However, with every passing year, I find myself reflecting just a little more deeply on the purpose of gift-giving at Christmas. I think this is fueled by the growing desire to avoid the rush of people at the shops; or maybe a more selfish desire to avoid the increasing cost of supplying numerous gifts! Either way, this year I’m determined to challenge the consumerism that engulfs society each year in the time leading up to Christmas. I invite you to do the same.
Take a moment to consider how many times you’ve received a Christmas gift you didn’t need, want or have space for? How many times have you settled for buying a mediocre gift for someone else, just to ‘tick the box’? While gift-giving is generally a noble, generous action, do we always do it for the right reasons?
With several young children of my own who are spoilt each Christmas by relatives, I’m conscious of the need to avoid a materialistic perspective on Christmas – an attitude that continues to seek more gifts, and measures happiness by the size of the pile of presents received each year. Instead, how can we help to foster an attitude that is grateful for the smallest gifts, and that doesn’t come to expect a vast array of new gadgets to unwrap each year?
Pope Francis’ latest encyclical makes it clear that the love of Christ is the only answer to such questions:
“In a world where everything is bought and sold, people’s sense of their worth appears increasingly to depend on what they can accumulate with the power of money. We are constantly being pushed to keep buying, consuming and distracting ourselves, held captive to a demeaning system that prevents us from looking beyond our immediate and petty needs. The love of Christ has no place in this perverse mechanism, yet only that love can set us free from a mad pursuit that no longer has room for a gratuitous love. Christ’s love can give a heart to our world and revive love wherever we think that the ability to love has been definitively lost” (n. 218).
The greatest gift you can give someone this Christmas isn’t the latest iPhone or Nike sneakers, but rather the gift of your love, manifested in the giving of your time, your attention, your listening, your hospitality, your forgiveness. Whether you’re on the journey to becoming Catholic or learning more about your faith, this Christmas I encourage you to bring the child Jesus, whose birth we celebrate so fondly at Christmas, into the lives and hearts of others. For that’s the greatest gift of all.
Links
Encyclical Letter Dilexit Nos, on the Human and Divine Love of the Heart of Jesus Christ (Pope Francis, 2024)
Image: Lightstock
Words: Matthew Biddle