WHETHER we can enter the Christian spirit of accepting 25th day of December as the birthday of Jesus Christ or not, the fact remains that many other religions accept the day as a time of goodwill to all beings. Among the many holidays of those religious and non-religious people who preceded the Christian era, December 25 was the most outstanding and most important of all. There are many things which indicate that when the great fathers of the Christian church were perplexed at deciding upon the precise date of the birth of Jesus Christ, they were influenced by the fact that December 25 had always been a holiday typical of the Christian spirit and would, therefore, be most appropriate.The spirit of that ancient holiday is reflected in every feature of our present day Christmas time. In pre-Christian years, prisoners then in bondage were set free on the eve of December 25. Throughout the day people exchanged gifts, and every symbol and sign of goodwill was expressed. Today the spirit of Christmas is something that is always separate and apart from the sacred celebration of the birth of the Great Saviour. Even those whose religious beliefs do not permit them to keep the sectarian holiness of the day find in it an opportunity for expression of the spirit of goodwill and human fellowship that is very broadly and quite uniquely the true expression of the Christ spirit.Human beings have become accustomed to systematising their emotions and expressions. So many of us labour throughout the year from which we need periodic vacation in order to rest and recuperate. Many of us are worthy of such rest and vacation at almost any period of the year, yet for no good reason postpone same till either the summer or Christmas time. The idea of setting apart one day to give thanks to God and the heavenly hosts for all our blessings is all but another evidence of our ritualistic formalities in things that should be free from ritualism entirely.Perhaps there are some practical benefits to be derived from working and systemising our emotions and expressions. May be by concentrating such expressions into one or few days, we are more efficient and more definite in what we do. Perhaps the fact that December 25 is so universally looked upon as a time of goodwill induces us to express the goodness in our hearts more completely, and with greater intensity than we would under different circumstances. If this is the argument, then we should be logical enough to prove it and do it. Therefore, those who withhold from others, throughout the year, the goodwill they should express, and who restrain the impulses to give and share with others what they have, they should on Christmas day or throughout the festive week make every effort to unburden these pent-up and restrained expressions of the entire year.Unquestionably, each of us owes something to others, and each of us is enjoying benefits and blessings that we can and should share with others. Joy and happiness are the most essential things in life, often enjoyed in abundance by many but lacking in the lives of many more. In our environment or close to each of us this Christmas, there will be hundreds of people who will find the day nothing more than a day of ordinary experiences fraught with solitude, despondency, gloom and regret. Without leaving our immediate neighbourhoods we can find someone whose picture of life will be the very opposite of our own. Just how many of us can feel the fullness of Christmas joy while across the street, there is someone in want or in sorrow, in sadness and grief'If there was anyone outstanding emotion made manifest by the living Christ on earth, it was the consciousness of the sorrow of the world. He was a man of sorrows, not because of personal experiences but because of his consciousness of the experiences of millions of human beings around him. How then, can any of us expect to have the slightest degree of Christ consciousness within him and at the same time be immune to the sorrows around him, and restrain from sharing his happiness and his blessings with those who do not have them.Christians admit that the presence of Christ consciousness is not only desirable but represent the maximum of their earthly desires. If we would get the utmost out of the Christmas spirit this year, and if we would live a life that exemplifies the Christ consciousness within us, then we must seek to find opportunity, occasion and means of bringing some happiness and joy into the lives of those who do not have these things either at Christmas time or any other time of the year. Therefore, make this Christmas a holy day in the true Christian spirit by sharing with others to some degree, that which you have in abundance. In this way, Christmas will be meaningful to all, independent of its religious significance; independent of its sectarian meaning but uniquely and wholly in the spirit of the ideal that it exemplifies.
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