I feel that, ultimately, the Protestant Reformation got a little out of hand.
That doesn't mean that Luther didn't get anything right.
To live is to be lost. Boy, was he right about that.
The fundamental situation of man is to be adrift. Shipwrecked.
Anything that even suggests control or security in our existence is illusion.
To live is to come to grips with that basic fact. To face it, to embrace it, to radically reject any ideology or lifestyle that would induce us to think otherwise.
That is the truth that makes Christmas worth considering. Not the way we celebrate it now, because we've made it a very safe and insignificant social and economic event. We have divested it of its shock value. It has become as warm and fuzzy as Santa and his elves.
In essence, we've made it about ourselves. About feeling good and affirming a way of life that is so hopelessly narcissistic that we can no longer see beyond our own reflection in the bulbs on the Christmas tree.
To understand that our need, our insufficiency and the utter precariousness of our situation are the best thing we have going for us - like the castaway whose best friend is the piece of driftwood he clings to - is to open up to the ultimate truth.Christmas should be both scary and wonder-full. Our own tragedy is made clear and our salvation takes hold in the midst of it.
As you can see, the Exorcist got up early to work on his homily...
