THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, December 25, 1995 TAG: 9512210002
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A22 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
Two Christmases are celebrated in the United States.
The first Christmas is the secular festival - the secular orgy - of consumption.
This frenzied secular Christmas overshadows the second, religious, Christmas, celebrated by Christians worldwide, marking the birth of Jesus, the Christ child.
Both Christmases are about gifts and the spirit of selflessness. But the second celebrates exclusively the gift to humankind of God's immeasurable love - of, in the words of the Nicene Creed, ``the only-begotten Son of God. . . .
Who for us men and our salvation came down from heaven, And was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, And was made man. . . . '': Jesus, whose birth, ministry and resurrection, Christians believe, fulfilled the Hebrew prophets' promise of a savior.
All of which those who do not subscribe to creeds find incredible - literally, unbelievable. But which believers find life-sustaining, life-enriching.
The life of Jesus has shaped the history of 2,000 years.
Because Jesus exhorted his followers to spread the good news of God's love to every living creature, Christianity blossomed within the decaying Roman empire and spread to every part of the globe.
Because Jesus said all sinful humankind could reconcile with God by confessing wrongs, resolving to live a good life and asking forgiveness, and, having reconciled, be rewarded with eternal life, Christianity enchanted throngs thirsting for assurance that no one need live under judgment.
Because Jesus insisted that service by humankind to humankind - feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, healing the sick, sheltering the homeless, visiting the imprisoned - was also service to him and to his heavenly father, ministering to the poor, the weak and the rejected are basic tenets of Western civilization, and a continuing reproach to selfishness.
Because Jesus preached forgiveness, billions have responded - and millions still respond - lovingly, instead of angrily, to those who wrong them.
Because Jesus intervened to save the life of a village adulteress, many resolutely oppose the death penalty, even for the most heinous crimes.
That this Jewish carpenter - this itinerant rabbi and healer whose brief ministry at the inconsequential fringes of the Roman empire seemingly ended in humiliating failure - exerts powerful influence upon the hearts and minds of so many so long after his crucifixion is incomprehensible to skeptics. But it is seen by Christians as affirmation of a loving God's power. And it is an extraordinary achievement by every known measure.
The religious Christmas does not appeal to everyone. Hordes are indifferent to it, and many are hostile, dismissing all religion as bunk and Christmas as a hoax that captivates the gullible. But in a world bleeding and weeping from coldness, meanness and evil, the story of the Christ child's birth in the humblest of settings inspires in the faithful prayerful introspection, hope, love, renewal. by CNB