Reason for the season

Richard A. Sokerka

Christmas is less than a week away. With celebration of the Birth of Our Savior so close, it is important that Catholics and all Christians take time out from our hectic holiday planning and focus on the real reason for the season.

It is amazing how society has secularized the great feast of Jesus Christ’s birth.

It has become politically correct to say “Season’s Greetings” or “Happy Holidays” rather than “Merry Christmas” lest anyone be offended by our religious beliefs.

How hard was it to find Christmas cards with a religious theme this Advent? Amazingly, there is an endless selection of sleighs rolling through snowy trails, candy canes, reindeer and even Santa tipping a few too many hot toddies under the mistletoe.

Notice how displays of Nativity scenes have almost disappeared from our towns with nary a whimper from town residents.

How many stores even sell Nativity sets? In the secularized view of Christmas, the manger where Christ was born no longer has a place in the celebration of Christmas.

What would St. Francis say today if he traveled the highways looking for the real reason for the season? When he set up the first primitive Nativity scene in 1223 in Greccio, Italy, he did so with the hope that all would focus all their energy on the birth of the Christ Child.

This Christmas let us not be afraid to be evangelizers — as we are called to be as followers of Jesus Christ — and show others our faith. Like St. Francis did, let us wear our faith on our sleeve for all to see.

Let everyone know of our deep and abiding faith that on Christmas Day, a Savior was born to us all in Bethlehem — and that Jesus Christ is the one and only reason for the season.

Merry Christmas!