“The true spirit of Christmas is the beauty of being loved by God” --Pope Francis

[Donnadogsoth]

Why should we respect the love of God?  To respect something means to have fear and pride regarding it.  We respect the bear because it can harm us, but we also respect it because it is a joy of creation, whether we want to call that creative force Nature or God.  The bear is a work of art, it is an expression and a beauty.  So, we take a reflected pride in that, pride being joy in accomplishment.

So, if we're dealing with the creative force taken as a whole and applied to our own lives, we find it worthy of fear--because it can harm us--and also pride--because, as Shakespeare said,

What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how
infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and
admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like
a god! the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals—. . .

Apply this to the love of God, the creative force taking an active interest in human affairs, down to the last man, woman, and child.  Then what accomplishment is there to  take pride in?  Men weep for Christ, for the "babe the son of Mary", not out of fear but, I think, out of an acknowledgement of Christ's worthiness.

The accomplishment of God, in what way is it proud?  Are not matters of pride also matters of effort?  If someone could fart out the Mona Lisa would we take pride in their pride, their joy of accomplishment?  The idea of an omnipotent being thereby taking legitimate pride in something seems silly.

Let's say however that God decided to do something hard, namely the Incarnation and its sequels, for the sake of mankind.  Then that would be a point of pride for him, and for us as well.  And if Creation couldn't exist without the Incarnation as part of it, both being created as a whole simultaneously, then all of Creation participates in the pride of Christ's presence, sacrifice and overcoming.

This gives us something to take pride in, in a secondary sense like how we might take pride in race or country.  We weep not because we are afraid, but because our hopes are touched by the immensity of meaning--love by God--which the "newborn king" symbolises and embodies.  It is the "hopes and fears of all the years" compressed into a single helpless and tiny form laid in a feeding trough amidst a stinking barn.

The true spirit of Christmas therefore exists as a sense of respect for the beauty of being loved by the creative force at the heart of it all, the sense that despite all the wretchedness, "all will be well."

 

[ofd]

The pope is a heretic, even by Catholic standards. Why bother?

[M.2]

I just spent my first christmas without Christ due to work obligations... it was an absolute borefest. Why do atheists even bother? On the other hand, I would be risking death every time I am around 10 or more people just because I'm in western Europe... so... silver lining I guess.

Seriously, there are so many soldiers here, one wonders why NATO is still having issues in the middle-east. 

4 hours ago, ofd said:

The pope is a heretic, even by Catholic standards. Why bother?

Not true, but he is cutting it damn close according to the traditionalists.