A FORLORN SHELF-LIFE

You know, ‘Every coin has two sides.’ For Christmastide we have had to put up the decorations(that’s one side of coin) and some weeks later we have to take them down(that’s the other side of coin). Climbing ladders and stretching streamers from one side of a room to another is fun, with excitement in the air  - with our looking forward to  parties and to presents, and to  the gatherings of families and friends.

Add to this, we Christians have the Reason for the Season – the celebration of the birth of Jesus. How I’ve always looked forward to getting out the figures and placing them in a crib. Time was when I designed a different crib each year.

 Against the background of jolly seasonal music there’s been the heartiness and extravagance in the High Street…with the ‘hard-sell’ of the shop owners and the eager spending of the public. There’s been so much good-will in the air. This year I’ve been thrilled when complete strangers have cheerfully wished me season’s greetings. I’ve been moved to dip into my pocket when representatives of the Charities have sought donations to enable them to bring some joy and a sense of being remembered to the needy and the over-looked.

Now we come to the flip side of the coin. What do we find? Concerted dismantling of what for a short while delighted us so much… the twinkling lights, the  brightly coloured streamers and  glass baubles. All of them had to be brought down to earth and returned to their boxes. Then, got out of sight - on top of a cupboard or on some obscure shelf.

 As for the balloons? No problem, there... Poor things! They couldn’t stand the pressure any longer. They’ve either burst or without a sigh have become deflated. ..no longer wanted, appreciated no more. This banishment to oblivion is just one step better than being damned to destruction. .. Tell me, ‘What can you do with a withered Christmas tree but throw it onto the fire?’

It’s a dreary, forlorn task shelving the symbols and memories of seasonal rejoicing. It’s notoriously difficult to find volunteers to pack up and clean up after the shelf-life of  Christmas merriment has expired! 

I’ve had a  feeling of emptiness.  Early in the New Year I went out to make one or two  purchases.  Where had all the people gone? So few of them in the shops. Did they really have all they wanted? Hardly. More likely they lacked so much…. but their pockets and purses were quite empty.

How I grieved for the shop-keepers. They’d  been  so happy when they 've seen a
a quick turn-over of goods, so contented to have had to replenish their shelves over and over again. Now so subdued that this  is no longer happening. Sad to say, so many attractive, useful items have over-stayed their welcome. Their shelf-life has been far too long.

 What really wrenched my guts was the sight of forlorn, unwanted Christmas decorations – on sale at give-away prices…anything to get rid of them. .clear them off the shelf, get them out of the stock-room. Their crime? They’re now  taking up valuable space…space that must be occupied by other goodies that might  possibly appeal to some buyer ready to part with a little of cash.

I’ve left till last the whole matter of Christmas socializing. There’s the convention that, just for Christmas, our grumpy family members, neighbours, colleagues and work-mates do put on a brief show of being civil, pleasant, even agreeable to all and sundry. Briefly  they’ve provided a lull in the indifference and even hostility they’ve been showing for most of  the  year.  Let it be said, ‘This synthetic charm is surely better than no charm whatsoever!’

It does occur to me that Christmas could have, should have had,  a healing effect on our stumbling and broken human relationships. This season of all seasons has surely been loaded with redemptive possibilities that could have made a real difference if only they’d been seized upon and nurtured.  

Surely the Babe of Bethlehem would have wished our rejoicing over His birth had had a spill-over of good-will that could have been carried far into the future. It didn’t have to resemble merely the brief refreshment of a fizzy, cool drink.  It’s up to us to ensure these ‘occasions of grace’ most definitely do not have a short shelf-life.

 It’s to be expected that we’ll put our decorations on the shelf for the time being and that we’ll dust them, come next Christmas.  But we shouldn’t dream of giving the same treatment to our brief, Christmas, sanitized response to others. Jesus would surely have wanted these memorable,  unexpected, droplets of grace to be channeled so as to prepare the ground for more cordial, more genuine, relationships.

 In all this, mywaygodsway really means letting God have His way. What did He want us to put into last Christmas? And what to get out of it?  Even now it’s not too late to act on these questions.  

Peter O.P.

Next week Fr. Isidore will reflect on Meeting God by responding to Christ's call to 'Come and See.'