Don’t Forget The Punch-line

In a book of “Outrageous and Hilarious Letters to the Parish Pastor,” the local dentist writes: Dear Pastor, I write to remind you again this year to lay off the Christmas candy. Candy rots your teeth. You need to stick to nourishing food — period!

And while I’m at it, let me remind you that if you go in for the Christmas “sweets” spiritually — I mean if you sentimentalize about Christmas (and get on a gooey glow and do nothing about letting the Living Christ into your daily living) — if, I say, you eat Christmas sweets instead of feeding your soul real nourishment, what you rot is your soul.

P.S. May we please have something on your account?1

Do we need to be reminded that Christmas has to do with the bitterness as well as the sweetness? Consider the New Testament record on this. When Mary first knew she was going to give birth to the Child Jesus, she gave…