Merry Christmas to you all! Happy Feast of the Holy Family! Our church space has been transformed by the splendid lights and colors of Christmas. There’s always something comforting and joyful about the decoration of the season, and even here, the spiritual lessons abound before our eyes. Catholic history dates the Christmas tree to the life of St. Boniface, who lived from 675–754 AD. He was an English bishop who was sent as a missionary from the Church of Rome to the pagan peoples of Hesse, Germany.
Having converted many in his fruitful ministry of preaching, our saintly brother returned to Rome for some time. But he went back to Germany to celebrate Christmas there in the year 723 and arrived in Geismar, only to find that the people had returned to their former pagan practices! They were preparing to celebrate the winter solstice by sacrificing a young man to the god Odin under an oak tree they had made sacred to the god. St. Boniface was so enraged that he took an axe and, in front of all the people, felled the great oak tree. This much we know belongs to history. It became a historical symbol of the triumph of Christianity over the pagan divinities of northern Europe.
From there, the popular legend continues that the tree fell and destroyed all the foliage in its wake except for a small fir tree. St. Boniface recognized the importance of this evergreen as already significant to the people, who for centuries revered the fir tree as a symbol of peace and immortality. He directed them to take a small fir tree into their homes and celebrate Christmas in honor of the Christ child, who brought true peace to the world and restored immortal, eternal life to the human race, lost in the Garden of Eden.
The Christmas tree for us is also deeply linked to the love of family, as it is the place of gathering on Christmas morning where our gifts are shared with each other and our familial bonds are deepened. Now that we’re all grown and my siblings have their own families, we’ve settled into the tradition of joining together for the “Lenz family Christmas” on the Sunday following Christmas. So, this afternoon, I’ll be heading back to my parents’ home in Lansing to spend time with them, my siblings, and all my nieces and nephews. I especially love watching the faces of the kids glow so joyfully, and I love the familiarity of the Christmas drinks and food and music.
In Jesus, the love of God enters into all creation and re-vivifies it after the pattern of perfect Triune love. We are called to seek and to choose the joy of this gift of God. The Feast of the Holy Family reminds us how Triune love binds our families together and builds them up in love, respect, generosity, trust, self-sacrifice, hope, and joy. It is the will of God that Christian families, in particular, become a beacon of these familial relationships in a world without Christ, which unfolds in the shadows of darkness. We have to fight for and protect this pattern of love. Only our individual and collective communion in Jesus makes this possible. And the ever-deeper surrender of our lives to Him—who is the King of us all—is the source of this communion.
Fr. Brian