Frantically last-minute Christmas shopping, I was arrested by a sign in a shop window: “Don’t forget yourself this Christmas.” It struck me as a neat expression of almost everything that is wrong with contemporary thought. For all the ghastly commercialisation of the season, the custom of giving gifts retains some crypto-realisation of the significance of the Christmas and Epiphany season; that love desires to give something to others, to share.
Even if the deeper significance of God giving us the gift of his Son has been obscured for many, a season of goodwill can continue to enrich humankind. But not if any gift given must be concomitant with affirming and enriching myself. Unless I forget myself I am not redeemed.
