The video below was produced by the Archdiocese of Washington for our “Find the Perfect Gift” Christmas outreach. It is an attempt to refocus Catholics and non-Catholics on the truest and most perfect gift of Christmas, Jesus Christ. It also invites each of us to give the perfect gift, the gift of our very self to God and to one another.
The video illustrates well a problem that we can all have at Christmas: hectic, hurried lives, made even busier by “holiday” requirements and traditions. These traditions, beautiful though they are, sometimes backfire and become a kind of countersign to some of the songs we sing, which speak of all being calm and bright, heavenly peace, peace on earth, and so forth.
The video also shows a problem that has become worse in recent years with the “stovepiping” effect of technology, which allows us to live in our own self-designed but very separate worlds. Many of us walk about with ear buds in and barely notice the others around us. Others of us tune in to a very self-selected world of cable TV and/or Netflix. It is possible, as this video demonstrates, for people to live in the same house and yet inhabit different worlds.
Somewhere in the busy-but-isolated world of the household depicted here, is a member of the family who gets it right, and both finds and sings of peace. We all struggle to get it right and to find our proper center. Allow this video to give you a little vision of what the perfect gift is and what the perfect Christmas is. Gifts, parties, and yuletide joy are nice and have their places, but don’t miss the perfect gift!
For more information, you can click through at the link above, or visit this URL: www.findtheperfectgift.org.
Much of what we do in our traditions can tend to be vain, and we sort of drown in our vanity ( the worrying, the rushing, the doing, the focus on all things which are, in some or most ways, counter-God and anti-Christ). We should choose traditions which turn us toward true communion with God, and with each other, in Christ.
The video gets the point across. Well done.
“Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves, each looking out not for his own interests, but also everyone for those of others” (Philippians 2:3-4).
I find it sad that Christmas has become a giant commercial gimme gimme. The contrast between this and the Lord of all creation, leaving the comfort of Home to become Incarnate. Born in poverty, in a lowly cave, God humbled Himself to show us the way. Here is the greatest gift we could ever hope to receive. Yet we shun it, preferring glossy wrappings and extravagant gifts. For years now, thanks to the Holy Spirit, i have lived with the Gift, the Breath of Heaven. What need is there for another thing?
This world rejects Jesus Christ, shuns humility and gratitude, refuses repentance and the ineffable graces and mercies of God. It breaks my heart. What gifts are we bringing Him?