A friend of mine had a day off yesterday - to go Christmas shopping with his wife. I tried to convince them that all he needed to do was carry the bags, produce the plastic to pay and to say nothing... There are only 23 shopping days to go after all... :-)
There is a great story about a government minister who was asked by a national newspaper what he wanted for Christmas. Not wanting to appear too grasping, he said that he rather liked those bottles of stem ginger that you see in the shops around this time of year. And so the article ran: ‘We asked leading figures what they wanted for Christmas. The Archbishop of Canterbury said he wanted an end to the violence in Iraq. The Dali Lama said he wanted peace in the Middle East. The Pope said he wanted an end to poverty. The Minister for Trade and Industry said he wanted a jar of stem ginger.’
Christmas tends to begin around December 1st with the office party and end around April 5th when we have really taken account of what we have spent. Even in the midst of the credit crunch the tills are busy and even the shops that are often empty seem more full. It's official, Christmas is the ultimate consumer festival.
The giving and receiving of presents can be wonderful and life giving. It can be an horrendous stress. We spend copious amounts of money that we cannot afford on presents that very often no-one wants. I don't have the stats to hand, but I wonder what percentage of the Christmas shop of the nation will be done online. I also wonder how if this Christmas will be simpler than some past. Either way, as we sit surrounded by delight, perhaps some disappointment and wrapping paper on December 25th I can't help wonder what all of that has to do with what Christmas is really about.
I don't suppose that for any of us the concept of Christmas shopping could be classed as retail therapy but it has become the way that we view the buying of gifts - a therapy.
"...‘Retail Therapy’ is a tongue-in-cheek phrase used to describe a particular approach to shopping. Hidden within it, however, is the germ of what can go wrong when the exercise of choice becomes an end in itself. We all need clothes, so living in a society that provides a choice of clothes at a reasonable price is a real benefit and a contribution to happiness. But when the consumer society persuades us that when we are unhappy shopping will make us happy again, then life has become unbalanced. If we are unhappy, we need to look at our interior choices, not at our shopping list.
In other words, simply choosing and choosing again can distract us from that interior world which is the true source of happiness. The exercise of external freedom can become a substitute for exercising internal freedom, a displacement activity that helps people avoid some hard interior choices. Rather than finding a new job they may need to spend more time with their family, instead of a holiday they may need to face their alcohol problem. At best, external choices can alleviate the symptoms, but they don’t lead to that interior delight that is the real source of happiness..." (From 'Finding Happiness' Pp35-37 by Abbot Christopher Jamison. Published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson.)
Hmmm... a therapy to modern living perhaps? The interior life, interior world, interior choices, interior delight... I think Christopher Jamison means the place in all of our lives where the moral, ethical and spiritual direction in all of us flow from. He alludes silently to St Augustine's '... our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you...' the place where God dwells.
Advent reminds us that God delights in us. He made each of us. He loves each of like a parent should love their child. When we are apart from those whom we love some describe that in physical terms as heart ache. We yearn for our lover, our spouse, our children. God yearns for his children whom he made; he longs for his bride The Church. Advent is that scene in the movie, where in slo-mo, God runs to us and we run to God, embracing passionately.
I started out with this about present shopping, but Advent is about gifts. God's gift to us of himself - rushing as an eager lover to us. Advent is also about our gift of ourselves to God, for if we fill our lives with presents this Christmas - wanted or not - we ultimately still feel empty. We all long for lasting love. For hope in bleakness. For peace in the turmoil that most of our frantic lives are.
Why not give God a present this Christmas - a restless heart, and find in him what you are really looking for.
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