The Catholic times. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1951-current, 1958-12-19
JOSEPH BREIC-
Boy On
4 Sled

christmas means more 10 HE Will SvCly ySdl
that passes-but the statement is one that requires
explanation. To begin with, | am not precisely sure
now what the holiday meant to me when was three
or four or five years OF age.
/ suppose there must have been at least one oc-
casion in my childhood when Christmas struck me
with a wonder rather like the wonder to which we look
forward in Heaven. But if so, | confess that my
memory Of 1t is vague.
There are two Christmases that / remember WV
idly doubtless because they did not go at all as
scheduled. Once I sat down sobbing at the tree be-
cause / did not find an electric train = and an electric
train was the thing upon which my heart was set.
FORTUNATELY, my father was in the toy bust
ness, and he bundled me in blankets on a sled and
drew me through a fall of great soft snowflakes. to the
store, where he unlocked the door, went IN, and came
out with a box containing a train, which he placed on
/ have never forgotten how l marveled at the
thought that he possessed a key to that holy OF hoiles,
a toy shop. Exactly what the word father" meant to
me at that time, / do not recall; but at least | knew
that somehow l had some kind of ownership in this
extraordinary being who could unlock a toy store.
The other Christmas that / remember well was
rather a Christmas Eve than a Christmas Day. ! had
been put to bed but did not go to sleep; and ! could
hear the subdued sounds of some kind OF super-im-
portant business going on in the parlor, which was
just down the hall from my little bedroom. @
WAITED, with what now strikes me as aston
ishing capacity-for-conspiracy in one so very young,
until I felt certain that every one was absorbed in
whatever was going on. Then eased open my door
with infinite stealth, crawled along the hall close to
the wall, wormed my way on my stomach through the
doorway and settled down under a couch to watch
while the Christmas tree was trimmed.
Thus did / discover what | had unprecedented
Santa Claus was a pleasant fiction. Only much later
in life did | realize that as a symbol OF the spirit or
Christmas as it was lived centuries ago by the Arch
bishop st. Nicholas, Santa Claus is true with the very
heart of truth.
But now Christmas to me is not a date or a day
at all, but a being. Christmas is a Person. Christmas
is Christ. Christmas is my other Father, God, caring
SO much about me and my felowmen as to send His
only Son, God like Himself, to become one OF us in our
own human nature to redeem us so that we and he
can live together forever.
ON THAI EARLY Christmas Day when / want
ed a toy train, / was a child and myfather was a man,
and | did not understand him because the mind OF q
small boy is not the mind OF a grown adult. But !
trusted him; and I saw that he had power to give
happiness to me because he had the key to the store.
1t was enough; / was content.
Now / am a man with children of my own, but OF
course | do not understand our Father God, | do not
understand God in Christ, because He is divine and /
am human, and the little knowledge of a man is not
the infinite wisdom of God. But | trust Him, and |
know that he has power to give me happiness because
He has the key to the wonders of eternity. And /
know He is good; He was born for me in Bethlehem.
and died for me .on Calvary. 1t is enough; | am con-
tent.
SUCH IS the meaning of Christmas for me now.
Christmas is Christ in His Church, Christ present
with US in the Mass, Christ in whose Mystical Body
that is, the Church - we are members. And because
we are members of Him, we are members also of one
another. And so Christmas is Christ and you and / to-
gether at Mass, offering ourselves to God with our
fears and our courage. our laughter and tears, our
successes and failures.
Life with God, forever and ever, is even more
mysterious than the toy store seemed to the four
year-old boy who was drawn there on q sled through
the falling snow by the awe-inspiring man who was
his father. But if we are not afraid in childhood when
our fathers are with us, we need have no fear when
we are with God in Christ at Mass on Christmas Day.
Such Is now the meaning Of this holy day for me.