Mark McDonald is a Los Angeles-based psychologist known as the dissident MD. However, he chatted to me about Christmas because it’s that time of the year.
It’s a celebration
Christmas is primarily celebrated to honour the birth of Jesus Christ, whom we Christians believe to be the son of God.
So it’s a kind of a big deal.
It is a time to reflect on the fulfillment of prophecies and the miraculous nature of Jesus’ birth.
Christmas gives us an opportunity to focus on the central message of Christianity, which is God’s love for humanity and the gift of salvation.
The act of gift-giving is a reflection of God’s love and generosity; God demonstrated his love by sending Jesus as a gift to the world. By exchanging gifts, we emulate God’s love and share blessings with others.
It’s symbolic.
But it’s also happy.
A bit of necessary cynicism
Christmas has evolved into a culturally significant holiday celebrated worldwide, even by people who are not Christians.
It serves as a unifying force, bringing families, friends, and communities together.
It’s an important tradition even if its date is historically inaccurate.
Two angles (angels)
Christmas is celebrated in two main ways:
- commercial, focusing on buying and spending, and
- religious, focusing on the birth of Jesus Christ.
In the commercial sense, Christmas is a time for buying gifts and spending money. It’s a period of generosity and family time. It has also become a period of excessive spending and materialism, as well as paganism.
This is obviously not good and can certainly – and does – detract from the meaning of Christmas. Too much focus on consumerism is the antithesis to Christmas.
In the religious sense, Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus, which is about remembering God’s love and the significance of Jesus entering the world.
I prefer to view Christmas as the latter, trying not to get caught up in the former.
- A time for reflecting on being a Christian.
- A time for celebrating family.
- A time for communion with loved ones.
Yes, everybody knows that Jesus was probably not born on 25 December, but does it matter?
Not to me. Because why should it?
Excessive cynism leads to nowhere good.
Mark McDonald agrees.
