Let Us Be the Adorers

This article was seen in the Christmas Magazine.

There is a new movie on Netflix called Candy Cane Lane with Eddie Murphy. Essentially, and to warn there will be spoilers, after loosing his job, he finds out that he can receive what he believes to be $100,000 for having the best decorations on the block, so he decides to dedicate the remaining time in the Christmas season to that. He comes across this store that is seemingly under a bridge and walks in to this magnificent store. Then a creepy elf comes out of nowhere and after a little bit of repartee, the elf asks Eddie Murphy’s character what the meaning of Christmas is. He explains that Christmas is about giving and the power of a child’s imagination. Then he finishes his explanation with the statement “Unless you want to go the religious angle,” in which the elf responds, while laughing, “Jesus, no.” 

It was meant to be a funny little joke but it came off as ignorant and frankly disgusting. Here is this Christmas movie completely disregarding the clear point of the season, while also mocking religion and the name of Jesus Christ. I think this scene says so much about the year and our society in general in the modern era. I think it is has been obvious for a long time that society has pushed aside the birth of Jesus Christ, and with Him the birth of our salvation, but what has been increasingly more obvious is that society has come to hate Jesus Christ, and has come to hate the true meaning of the season. Society has come to hate the true incarnation, the birth of our salvation, the birth of God, the birth of Jesus Christ, the King of Glory. 

I have always found it odd why society would reject such a beautiful message. Think about the message of Christmas for a second: Jesus Christ, who is God, the second person of the Trinity, lowers Himself and takes on a human form, born into a lowly manger, with such little glory surrounding him. And going beyond that, the reason He was born is even more beautiful. Jesus Christ was born to save us, to save me and to save you. He was born to take up his cross, to be nailed to the cross, and to defend into hell, defeat death, and resurrect on the third day, allowing us to live with God if we choose to do so based off our lives. But foe some odd reason, society has rejected this beautiful message and for some reason replaced it with secular meaning, which still has value, but diminishes in comparison in the presence of the true meaning of Christmas. 

So what does this mean for us, as a community of believers in Jesus Christ, his birth, his presence, his resurrection, and his death for our salvation? It means that we have to be the witnesses throughout the world and show society how the true meaning of Christmas changes our lives. 

As I am sure all of you know, receiving the Eucharist is a transformative experience. When we receive the Eucharist, Jesus changes us from within. Jesus works miracles inside of us, allowing us to have the force of love to turn away from sin. This transformative experience should be evident in the world. This is how we live out the message of Christmas in the world. We bring the message of Christmas, of the birth of the salvation of the world, by using the transformative power of the Eucharist. 

So many of us go about our day sometimes forgetting out true identity: we are Catholics, we are children of God, we are part of the body of Christ (that is the Church). We need to go about our day remembering the Christmas purpose: Christ was born into the lowly manger to do the greatest thing in history. People should know we truly believe this by our actions, by our daily lives. If people don’t know we are Catholic and don’t know what we truly believe by our daily lives, we aren’t truly living out the Christmas message. 

One of my favorite Christmas songs is “O Come All Ye Faithful,” and in the song the last few lines repeats “O come, let us adore Him.” We need to show the world that we adore the Lord, that we truly worship Jesus Christ, that we truly believe in his message. 

So I say on this Christmas Day, let us truly adore Him, and let us make it known throughout the world.