Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays?

There in the States, they make a big stir over which is more proper to say: Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays? It stems from what they call as the “war on Christmas” that to my mind has religious, political and ideological undertones. Apparently there are people who are trying to tone down the religious aspect of the greetings.

They have made some polls on people’s sentiments regarding this issue and have found out that most Republicans and the older people favor saying, Merry Christmas over Happy Holidays, while most Democrats and the younger ones prefer the other way around.

I would say that both greetings can be correct and proper depending on one’s motives and the circumstances surrounding the greetings. There should not be a big fuss over this issue, especially in our country that so far is still quiet about it.

But, yes, we have to give due attention to its religious, political, and social dimensions involved, to be ready in case this issue erupts into something big here. I also suspect that this controversy in the States is a kind of religious baiting akin to what they call as racial baiting that is not really a problem in our country. We should not take this issue too seriously, at least as of now.

Offhand, I must say that many people nowadays are not quite affected by whatever greeting is said because they just say things perfunctorily, without much attention about whatever implications those greetings can make. The obvious presumption is that the greeter means well, and hardly anyone interprets the greeting beyond that presumption.

It’s when people put more into these greetings that we can start to have a problem. When a person or especially a group, for example, makes a blanket praise or blanket condemnation of the one of the expressions to the exclusion of the other, for some religious, political or ideological reasons, then we really would have a problem.

Let people say what they want to say as a greeting during this special period of the year. Everyone has his idea of what is correct and proper, what is traditional and customary to say, and we just have to respect that. Unless it is clear that his greeting violates a basic human right, which is hardly the case, we should just be happy that one greets or is greeted.

Of course, we have to give due attention to the way the temper of the times develops. In our country that is predominantly Christian and Catholic, we should make it a point that the spiritual and religious character of the season is upheld. In fact, it should be developed, purified, enriched and protected. We have to be wary of the many isms that tend to undermine the true character of Christmas.

We should not forget that in the world today there is already a very strong wave of worldliness, agnosticism, skepticism and atheism. We have to be ready in the event these isms try to dominate us.

But this does not mean that we should engage in some religious war on those whose beliefs are different from but not necessarily opposed to our Christian faith. We have to respect religious freedom and the freedom of consciences. We should not go around imposing our doctrine and ways on those who see things differently. We have to follow what Christ once said: “Whoever is not against you is for you.” (Lk 9,50)

What we can do is to be more consistent in our spiritual life, more Christ-like, that in the first place is expected to be characterized by humility, meekness, charity, mercy, patience while pursuing the truth as spelled out by Christ and taught authoritatively by the Church. We should try to follow what Christ also once said: “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.” (Mt 12,30)

We need to give good example to others in an abiding way, and not just intermittently, that can give rise to suspicions of hypocrisy, deception and some other ulterior motives on our part. More than words, this is how we can win souls, encourage the weak, correct those in error, cause conversions, et cetera.

While there can be drastic measures to keep our Christian identity at Christmas time, we should use more the normal means of giving witness to our faith in the ordinary circumstances of our daily life. This will attract souls to the Christian faith more effectively.

We should avoid any traces of self-righteousness, of seeing things in a simplistic black-and-white way.