Tag: Customs

Do you or don’t you?
   Presumably, your answer reflects whether you still have a naïve, sentimental attachment to a childish belief or whether you are a mature, educated adult.
   What are we talking about?
   First, there’s no dispute that historically there was a Nicholas who was bishop of Myra in Asia Minor in the days of the Eastern Roman Empire.
   Secondly, he was known for his holiness and generosity, so much so that many stories were told about his good deeds and miracles. He was known as Nicholas the Wonderworker and popular all over Eastern and Western Europe.
   Curiously, many of our popular modern notions about St. Nicholas (abbreviated as Saint or Santa Claus) are associated with the history of the Dutch colony, later taken over by the English, that became New York.
   Early books there about Santa Claus had him arriving from the North in a sleigh drawn by flying reindeer to reward good children and punish the bad.
   But, the definitive popular description of Santa Claus came with the publication of a long poem, known now as “The Night Before Christmas.” That helped paint our contemporary image of “A right jolly old elf . . . dressed all in fur . . . a bundle of toys . . . flung on his back.”
   The elf with the toys for the good children has become endeared by stores selling Christmas gifts—and many a make-believe Santa Claus is ensconced in a department store or mall as a promotion for purchases.
   As happens with so many customs with religious roots, we tend to elaborate and exaggerate the details to the point that we almost forget the origin of the custom.
   Bishop Nicholas was famous for helping the poor and needy, but the imaginative legends about him have focused on him as bringing gifts for good children.

   How did all the customs associated with St. Nicholas get entangled with Christmas, the nativity of Jesus?
   What may have contributed to the situation was the adoption of the newer Gregorian calendar by the Western Church, while the Eastern Churches generally continued to follow the older, Julian calendar.
   St. Nicholas’s feast day was traditionally December 6th. Since most of churches of the homeland of St. Nicholas did not adopt the updated, Gregorian calendar, it would seem to the Western churches that did that the day was on the 19th of December.
   Perhaps it was close enough to the Western date of the celebration of the Nativity to seem that the Orthodox churches were merely starting a little early to celebrate Christmas, while actually they were celebrating St. Nicholas day.
   In any case, clearly the two feasts have been somewhat entangled in popular observance with most of the St. Nicholas day traditions being associated with Christmas!
   Anyway, there’s no jolly old elf or St. Nicholas living near the North Pole, nor does he have an army of assistants, nor does he use a flying reindeer-drawn sled, nor does he come down chimneys.
   However, we do celebrate the generosity and love of St. Nicholas, inspired by the love of the child that was born in Bethlehem so long ago.
   Above all, we celebrate the almost incredible love, mercy, and sacrifice of the grown man that child later became that has saved us all and inspires and guides us still!
   We believe in him, every day, Christmas and always!

25 December 2022

First, a brief clarification of terms:
   Theory – from Late Latin theoria from the Greek theoria meaning a “a view”
   Neonatal – meaning of or relating to newborn children
   Proclivity – from the Latin proclivitas, a steep descent, steepness, sloping forward, meaning a natural or habitual inclination or tendency; propensity; predisposition.
   The theory of neonatal proclivity is usually associated with a quasi-genetic point of view about passing on inappropriate behaviors.
   Is there such a theory? I don’t know, but by using different words it challenges us to think about what we mean by the Doctrine of Original Sin.
   It holds, first, that the progenitors of the human race, although constitutionally well designed and innocent, fell victim to the temptations of an evil force and departed from their creator’s designs and will.
   And, secondly, it holds that their progeny inherited a tendency to the same deviation from their original design and passed it on to their descendants.
   According to this doctrine, children are born with “Original Sin”—in the sense, not that they are personally guilty of a sin but that they have inherited a proclivity to sin.
   It is the basis for a certain urgency that they receive the sacrament of Baptism, even though they are too young to be aware of it or understand what it is.
   (Originally Baptism was only for mature adults who accepted the teaching of Jesus and wanted to join his followers. They symbolically expressed this desire and choice by being ceremoniously washed and clothed in new garments.)
   The later custom of also baptizing infant children was an affirmation that they were cleansed from “Original Sin” and pledged by their parents to be raised as Christians. At a future date, hopefully they would personally endorse and reaffirm this symbolic decision.

   Adults who led a Christian life were presumed to be saved and ultimately in Heaven after death; those who did not were presumed to be damned and in Hell.
   Since unbaptized infant children could not fit into either category, a new concept was introduced to cover their situation: that they were poised, as it were, at the frontier of Heaven. This state of being, called Limbo, was identified as neither a punishment nor a reward, but a consequence of having been born and died with “Original Sin”.
   This point of view, popular for many centuries, now can seem flawed and unjust.
   A tendency or a propensity to do something wrong, to commit a sin, is not the same as actually doing it.
   Some of the greatest saints may have been tormented by temptations to sin which they successful resisted—or, as the case may be, they may have committed a sin and then repented their decision and atoned for it.
   To the contemporary mind, it seems implausible and a violation of logic and justice that someone be adjudged guilty of a temptation that he or she actually successfully resisted.
   Sin is a decision and cannot be inherited. However, the inclination to think otherwise is understandable, as one considers the many evils of ancient and modern societies and the so many bad choices of others.
   In biblical and early post-biblical times when adults accepted the teachings of Jesus and sought acceptance into the early Christian community (the Church), they repented past decisions and choices and resolved to follow a new life style.
   There was not yet a concern nor thought about neonatal proclivities!

18 December 2022