About Christmas
Some thoughts from the writings of Mary Baker Eddy
Certain occasions, considered either collectively or individually and observed properly, tend to give the activity of man infinite scope; but mere merry-making or needless gift-giving is not that in which human capacities find the most appropriate and proper exercise. Christmas respects the Christ too much to submerge itself in merely temporary means and ends. (My. 259:23-39)
Observed by material sense, Christmas commemorates the birth of a human, material, mortal babe — a babe born in a manger amidst the flocks and herds of a Jewish village.
This homely origin of the babe Jesus falls far short of my sense of the eternal Christ, Truth, never born and never dying. (My. 262:6-12)
In Christian Science, Christmas stands for the real, the absolute and eternal, — for the things of Spirit, not of matter. Science is divine; it hath no partnership with human means and ends, no half-way stations. Nothing conditional or material belongs to it. (My. 260:9-13)
Christmas to me is the reminder of God's great gift, — His spiritual idea, man and the universe, — a gift which so transcends mortal, material, sensual giving that the merriment, mad ambition, rivalry, and ritual of our common Christmas seem a human mockery in mimicry of the real worship in commemoration of Christ's coming.
I love to observe Christmas in quietude, humility, benevolence, charity, letting good will towards man, eloquent silence, prayer, and praise express my conception of Truth's appearing. (My 262:20-30)
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