Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas! Uh… No, that’s not right,
Happy Nativity! Oh, I mean,
Happy Holidays! Shit, um…,
Season’s Greetings!
Why has it become so hard to express the joy of this season, the celebration of life and redemption in the midst of winter’s death and forsakenness? I recently read an evangelical tract (I know not why?) that disputes the use of the phrase, “Merry Christmas,” because “Merry” meaning “joyful” should never be coupled with “Cristes Maesse,” literally the liturgical memorial of Christ’s atoning death on the Cross. The writer considers it perverse to celebrate Christ’s death with fanfare. He is quite right, of course, that is why the mood of Good Friday is so disconsonant with that of Easter Sunday.
Nevertheless, he misses a poignant fact: “Merry” doesn’t only connote joyousness and jubilation, contextually it also means “blessed” or “peaceful”. He also ignores the fact that the “Mass” memorializes Christ’s atoning sacrifice everyday of the year and the singular moment within the “Mass” wherein the Eucharist is consecrated and the Sacrifice of Christ is memorialized (and in Roman theology, also participates in the once-for-all, yet eternal Sacrifice of Christ) is one of solemn thanksgiving and somber reflection. It is otherwise distinct from the tone and mood of the liturgy, only Good Friday’s liturgy entirely encompasses the mood of the Sacrifice of Christ.
When we say, “Merry Christmas,” we are essentially saying, “Have a blessed (and joyful) ritual celebration of Christ’s Birth”. This, however, leads to another problem. Christmas, Chanukah, and the more recent (and somewhat artificial) Kwanzaa have been integrated by our secular culture into the “Winter Holidays”! It has become politically-correct to substitute exclusive greetings, like “Merry Christmas” and “Happy Chanukah,” with more inclusive one’s like, “Happy Holidays”.
