Finding the Substance beneath the Commercialism

Over at CERC, Fr. Robert Siroco has some interesting thoughts on finding what is good in modern Christmas celebrations. It's a worthwhile angle to consider (and includes some fine thoughts from the Holy Father) especially since it is often through the truth and goodness we recognize and appreciate in others that we can help lead them along the next step toward Christ.

“The hectic commercialism is repugnant to us,” wrote Cardinal Ratzinger, “for it is indeed utterly out of place as a commemoration of the hushed mystery of Bethlehem, of the mystery of the God who for us made himself a beggar (2 Corinthians 8:9). And yet, underneath it all, does it not originate in the notion of giving and thus the inner urgency of love, with its compulsion to share, to give of oneself to the other? And does not the notion of giving transport us directly into the core of the mystery that is Christmas?”

Read the entire article, "Christmas Sacred and Secular"