read the whole thing at Madison Catholic Herald[...]All of this is good. It is a break from what we commonly experience through the year, and this is another reason that people are so desperate for it; Christmas is still very nice.
Christmas means more than being ‘nice’
Indeed Christmas is very nice, and niceness is one of the only virtues recognized by our society. But is niceness — understood as putting on a smile and saying happy things to people, and even doing something for them (when it is convenient for us) — really a virtue?
Did God become man just to help us to be nice? Did Jesus live His life in such an intensely nice way, that in the end, the authorities said, “this guy is just way too nice; he makes everyone feel comfortable and happy — we’d better crucify him?”
Or could it be — perhaps — that that to which we are called is far, far more than just niceness?
Of course, the answer is “yes.”
We are called to far, far more than just niceness. We are called to love — and again, not just love as understood in greeting cards or pop songs . . . even Christmas pop songs!
The love to which we are called is the love for which we are to prepare during Advent.
It is the love which gives without counting the cost, the love which is always for “the other.” It is the love which is “not I.”
What a gem! +Morlino at his best!
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