Even as we await a possible end to a global pandemic, our stress over the upcoming holiday is beginning to build. The pressures of making shopping lists, decorating the home and yard, finding the perfect cards, fighting through crowded shopping arenas, baking everyone’s favorite family recipes, and hoping you can afford it all, are just a few of the stresses created around, and meant to distract us from, the real meaning of Christmas. Sometimes we spend too much on the holiday, without a single thought to the Holy Day. We fret about the incidentals and forget about the Incident. We are wrapped up in giving and have yet to reflect upon the best Gift, Jesus Christ, God made flesh! To help convey my message, I’ll rely on something we all seem to understand, television.

I'm referring to the perennial favorite, “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas,” in which an angry, bitter, and reclusive figure becomes intent upon the destruction of the annual Christmas celebration in nearby Whoville. His plan is to destroy the outward signs of the day and thereby remove Christmas altogether. The Grinch believed that if he could snatch away their material happiness, sorrow would be the ultimate result.

All night long he labored to decimate every last symbol of the season. When the dawn finally came, a sinister smile crept across his lips as he anticipated the sobs and crying from all of the Whos in Whoeville when they realized Christmas wouldn’t come. However, when he cupped his ear and leaned into the cold morning air, it was not crying that he heard, but spontaneous singing that sprung from the people of Whoville. Only then did he realize that Christmas wasn't a commodity, it was an inescapable Event. This is the lesson for Catholics to learn. As we prepare for the Event, the incidentals can enhance it, but they are not it!

May prayer, Confession, a reading of the Christmas Story in the Bible and reflection upon the Gift of Jesus be our preparation in Advent. Then, when the Day arrives, we will be able to celebrate it for what it is and not lose it through the haze of activities and stress. Remember, "For God so loved the world that He gave it His only Son, Jesus Christ, so that we might have eternal life." (John 1:6)