Christmas Postmortem

By Santiago Rodriguez, S.J.

Credit: http://rack.2.mshcdn.com/

These reflections are the fruit of a Yuletide conversation, over coffee and sweets, with Erica Rodrigues.

Santa Claus has returned to the North Pole. The gifts have been unwrapped, gingerbread houses have been dismantled, and all the sweets have been eaten. The deed is done. The once proud and jolly Christmas tree has been recycled. Stockings, Christmas wreaths, and ornaments have been put away. Home Alone and A Charlie Brown Christmas no longer play on every TV channel. Christmas, my friends, is no more. And unless you are like me, you won’t be listening to Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas Is You until late November.

The Quest for the Real: Learning from the Humanity of Jesus

By Santiago Rodriguez, S.J.

“What is your quest?”

In the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the knights of the Round Table are asked of this question before they are allowed to cross the Bridge of Death, in order to continue their quest for the Holy Grail. Then God appears to Arthur and his knights as he avoids entering Camelot; they are subsequently given the sacred task to seek the Holy Grail. As God tells Arthur, “that is your purpose in life.”

Just like Arthur, we are on a quest. We are in pursuit of meaning and purpose. Our lives are a quest for the Real. The Real is that which is authentic and True. We constantly desire to have an experience of truth, goodness, beauty and love. Our sacred task is to pursue and enjoy the Real.

It is Jesus, the Way, the Truth and the Life that we desire. He is the Real. Our sacred task is to seek Him, draw closer to Him, love Him and serve Him. The quest of our lives is the deepening of our bond with Christ. As we encounter Him in our daily lives, we bring to Him the questions in our hearts and in our minds: ‘Why am I here?’, ‘What is the purpose of my life?’, ‘What does it mean to be human?’. The answer of these questions are all found in Jesus the Christ. We find the meaning of our humanity in His humanity.