Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Santa Claus? Yes or No for the Traditonal Catholic.


I can tell you why Catholics question the notion of Santa Claus.

Because we have learned not to trust the Culture.

When the culture is secular, expedient, selfish and materialistic you tend to become reactionary. (or maybe it is just me)

But, when Chesterton speaks, who can help but listen?

Catholic Culture
had a piece of teaching your children about Santa Claus.

I have nothing to add: Voila:

Chesterton tells us why we should believe

By Father John Dietzen
Catholic News Service

Q. My question isn't very deep, but with Christmas coming I am
concerned about the attitude of some friends who don't want their
children to "believe in Santa Claus." From almost infancy, they
tell their children there isn't really a Santa and that it was all
made up to sell more things at Christmastime. I think they're missing
something, but I'm not sure how to tell them. (Florida)

A. I too think they are missing something - very big. It's always
risky to analyze fantasies, but maybe it's worth trying for a moment.
Fantasies, perhaps especially for children, are critical ways of
entering a world, a real world that is closed to us in ordinary human
language and happenings. They are doors to wonder and awe, a way of
touching something otherwise incomprehensible. Santa Claus, I believe,
is like that.
No one has ever expressed this truth more movingly and accurately,
in my opinion, than the great British Catholic author G.K. Chesterton
in an essay years ago in the London Tablet. On Christmas morning, he
remembered, his stockings were filled with things he had not worked
for, or made, or even been good for.
The only explanation people had was that a being called Santa
Claus was somehow kindly disposed toward him. "We believed," he wrote,
that a certain benevolent person "did give us those toys for nothing.
And ... I believe it still. I have merely extended the idea.
"Then I only wondered who put the toys in the stocking; now I
wonder who put the stocking by the bed, and the bed in the room, and
the room in the house, and the house on the planet, and the great
planet in the void.
"Once I only thanked Santa Claus for a few dolls and crackers, now
I thank him for stars and street faces and wine and the great sea.
Once I thought it delightful and astonishing to find a present so big
that it only went halfway into the stocking.
"Now I am delighted and astonished every morning to find a present
so big that it takes two stockings to hold it, and then leaves a great
deal outside; it is the large and preposterous present of myself, as
to the origin of which I can offer no suggestion except that Santa
Claus gave it to me in a fit of peculiarly fantastic good will."
Are not parents of faith blessed, countless times over, to have
for their children (and for themselves) such a fantastic and playful
bridge to infinite, unconditionally loving Goodness, the Goodness
which dreamed up the Christmas event in the first place?
Call Santa Claus a myth or what you will, but in his name parents,
and for that matter all of us who give gifts at this special time of
the year, are putting each other in deeper touch with the "peculiarly
fantastic good will" who is the ultimate Source of it all. Plus, it's
fun!
I hope your friends reconsider.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Against all heresy? Start by denouncing the farse behind Fr. Pat´s healing hands. He´s not a natural born healder. His hands are Reiki hands and he lies about it, saying it ain´t so. Against all heresy? Denounce the use of Reiki in the healing services performed at the Catholic Churches/ Masses. Reiki, the energy of the spiritual world and used by card readers. Reiki, a dangerous energy when used the worng way. Reiki, a dangerous energy to expose yourself to. Reiki, used by Catholics convinced they are in touch with God.