Niall Gooch is hopeful this Christmas – at least, he hopes he is.
Hope is one of the great Christian virtues. “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he is faithful that hath promised”, as Hebrews chapter 10 puts it. We surely need some hope after this year. At the same time, however, it’s important for us not to be too glib in how we talk about hope, and to be careful about what we mean when we say “hope”.
As I write this, the nation is still getting to grips with two bits of grim coronavirus news.
First, the eleventh-hour changes to the Christmas visiting regulations, which will mean that many families who had hoped to spend some time together over the feast are disappointed. Second, the emergence of a new strain of the disease which appears to spread much more easily, putting further difficulties in the way of attempts to suppress Covid long enough that the elderly and vulnerable can be vaccinated.
These two developments together are a big blow for people, especially the new travel restrictions. My own children were very disappointed to hear that a much-anticipated visit from their grandparents would have to be postponed, and I’m sure millions of others are in a similar position. It does feel a little bit as though Christmas has been cancelled.
It may be true that we still have the theological hope of Christmas, even in grim circumstances, but truths can be stated in a careless and unhelpful way.
Some Christians on social media have responded to this disappointment by restating – in a rather self-satisfied way – that Christmas has not of course been cancelled; church services can still take place and we can still keep the feast in our homes and in our hearts. In this way of thinking, the only part of Christmas that has been taken away is the extraneous stuff, the bells and whistles, the secular fripperies. We still have Christian hope, they say.
Well, yes and no.
I wonder what it sounds like to, say, a single young professional who has barely seen their family all year. This person has perhaps been confined to a few rooms of a small flat for weeks at a time; they have not been allowed to go on holiday or to the pub or the gym; they have probably been looking forward to returning home for a precious break with parents and siblings, and now they have had even that prospect taken away.
It may be true that we still have the theological hope of Christmas, even in grim circumstances, but truths can be stated in a careless and unhelpful way.
We absolutely must talk about the real meaning of Christmas, and the reality of hope even in hard times, but let’s not get this entangled with an unnecessary dismissive attitude to the festal aspects of the season.
Constant indulgence is obviously bad for us, but on the appropriate occasions we should enjoy ourselves.
It is a commonplace among Christians for people to be rather sniffy about the less obviously “religious” accoutrements of Christmas – family parties and presents and decorations and good food – but as Catholics I think we should resist such generalisations. It seems to me that the heart of them lurks a kind of Puritan suspicion of feasting and merrymaking, which is quite alien to authentic Christian faith. Constant indulgence is obviously bad for us, but on the appropriate occasions we should enjoy ourselves.
“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven”, as Ecclesiastes says. “Every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God.”
Niall Gooch is a regular Chapter House columnist. He also writes for UnHerd.
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