“Tradition,
Family and Property”, November-December, 1993 (www.tfp.org)
Stop
and See
Plinio
Corrêa de Oliveira (*)
I could not resist. My original intention was to
write about some other theme, such as the internal crisis of the Church, but I
felt that there were no conditions for such a subject either in myself or in
those around me.
At the same time, as if from the depth of my soul,
harmonious and soothing reminiscences of my Christmases of old, made themselves
felt within me, and I am sure many of my readers share this same state of
spirit.
To encourage our exhausted and desolated souls, let us
unveil the light of Christmas for a moment so that afterwards we may again
resume our almost unbearable tedium with greater fortitude.
* * *
Let it be well understood that I do not speak of the
propagandistic and inauthentic joys which dominate the feast of Christmas in
our days. These have assumed the characteristics of a mere commercial function,
with agitated propaganda that barely allows people the peace of mind not to
shop.
"Glory to God in the Highest and peace on
earth to men of good will." How this
angelic canticle found a fertile environment in those desolate fields of
Has the authentic Christmas died?
With a touch of exaggeration, one could say that it
has. It has died in the virtually robot-like souls of so many millions of men.
And one may even say that it has perished in certain Nativity scenes as well.
Yes, Christmas has also died in the progressivist Nativities designed by
modern art, portraying the Holy Family with deformed features and creating impressions
that incite social revolution.
If we exaggerate in saying that Christmas has died, it
is certainly true that it still preserves some rays of life. If such be the
case, let us search for these rays.
Before anything else, we will find them in the very
fact of it being Christmas Day. We see that each liturgical feast brings with
it an effusion of special graces. Whether men appreciate it or not, grace
knocks at the door of each soul, and it does so more sublimely, lovingly, and
insistently on Christmas Day. It can be said that, in spite of everything, a
light hovers in the air, a certain peace, an encouragement to our souls, a
force of idealism and dedication that is difficult to ignore.
Moreover, in certain churches and in many households
the authentic Nativity still presents to our souls an image of the Infant God,
Who came to break the bonds of death, to trample upon sin, to forgive, to
regenerate, to open to men new and unlimited
possibilities for virtue and goodness.
Behold God, compassionate and within our reach, made
man like us, having next to Him the perfect mother, His mother but also ours.
Through her, even the worst of sinners may ask and hope to receive everything.
It is a feast in which our happiness at having faith
and virtue shines, and in which we rejoice at having all our actions and possessions
placed in a sacral order.
The joy of Christmas?
Yes, but much more than this. For a true Catholic, it is also the joy of all
365 days of the year. For in those souls in which Our Divine Savior dwells by
the work of grace, this joy lasts forever and is never extinguished. Neither
pain, nor struggle, nor illness, nor even death can eliminate it.
O you who live greedily for gold, O you who live
totally for vain glory, O you who live torpidly for sensuality, O you who live
diabolically for revolt and for crime, STOP AND SEE those souls who are
genuinely Catholic, over whom shines the joy of Christmas, and ask yourselves
what your happiness is in comparison to theirs?
Do not take these words as provocation nor disdain,
for in fact, they are more than this.
They constitute an invitation for a perennial
Christmas, which is the life of the true faithful: "Christianus
alter Christus," the Christian is another Jesus
Christ.
There is no happiness equal to this, not even when the
Catholic finds himself, like Jesus Christ Our Lord, nailed to the Cross.
(*) “Folha de S. Paulo”, December
27, 1970.