Attention, Faith, and Worship: Honoring and Adoring Christ at Christmas

A surprising number of Christmas carols were written under extremely trying circumstances in the world or in the lives of their creators.

One such carol is “Do You Hear What I Hear,” the lyrics of which were written by the French songwriter Noël Regney during the Cuban Missile Crisis in October, 1962, when Regney was living for a time in the United States.

The song is a plea for peace at a time when unthinkable destruction threatened the world. Yet the song points not to political or humanitarian solutions, but rather to the Christ Child. Do you see what I see? Do you hear what I hear? Do you know what I know? Our attention is drawn to the Star of Bethlehem, to the song of the angels, and to knowledge of the incarnate Son of God, who “will bring us goodness and light” and to whose worship we are summoned by the line, “let us bring him silver and gold.”

Attention, faith, and worship. If we want to celebrate Christmas well, we need these three keys.

The most simple and human of these keys is our attention. Our lives are profoundly shaped by what we pay attention to. There is always a choice to make. Every day, we receive blessings and we face challenges. Every day, we experience joys and sorrows. Even in our bodies, especially as we age, every day we have pains and discomforts as well as vitality and health. In our relationships, which mean so much to us at Christmas, there is always closeness and distance, understanding and misunderstanding, affection and strain.

What will we pay attention to? Yes, there are some things that force us to pay attention to them, but most of the time, with most things, we have a choice. And we should take that choice and its consequences very seriously. Paying attention to the good, and especially to the One who is all-good, brings joy, peace, and hope. Paying more attention than is needed to evil brings sadness, anxiety, and even despair.

Our attention to the good is often threatened by distraction. Distraction is an especially brutal challenge today, but it is one we all need to face. And it was not easy on that first Christmas, either. The Star of Bethlehem was bright, but it is a big night sky, and many people would have been indoors at night and would not have noticed the star. The song of the angels was amazing, but the shepherds had to look up from their sheep in order to see the angels and to pay careful attention to their wonderful, mysterious words.

Christmas gives us plenty to attract our attention, but do we always pay attention? Lights, Christmas carols, trees, and decorations of all kinds wrap us in an atmosphere of beauty and wonder, but we easily become preoccupied with worries. We also can easily become absorbed by material ambitions, thinking only of the gifts we will receive, the food we will eat, and so on.

Do you see what I see? Do you hear what I hear? Do you really see the beauty of your Christmas tree? Of the Nativity scene? Do you really hear the Christmas carols that proclaim the Gospel to the whole world? Do you notice the kindness of family, friends, and even strangers, and do you notice their need for your kindness and mercy?

At this point, we are moving into the second key to celebrating Christmas well, faith. “Do you see what I see” and “do you hear what I hear” quickly moves to the more penetrating question, “Do you know what I know?”. Faith is knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. Faith creates a bond, a connection no outside force can destroy. Faith is not a guess or an opinion. Faith is light and vision, clear, bright, and certain.

“This will be a sign for you,” the angels announce to the shepherds. Faith is about seeing signs and knowing what they signify. Faith is looking at a Christmas tree and seeing the wood of the manger and the Cross. Faith is looking at the millions of lights decorating everything around us and opening our hearts to the One who is the Light of the World. Faith is enjoying Christmas dinner but always remembering and longing for the Feast that is the Bread of Life and the Cup of Eternal Salvation.

When I look at the Nativity scene and see the Christ Child, do I know him to be the One who brings goodness and light? Another Christmas carol asks, “Mary, did you know,” a question with an easy answer. Yes, she knew. But do you and I know?

Yes, we know that Jesus is “the image of the invisible God,” as St. Paul tells us in the Letter to the Colassians. Saint Hippolotus testifies to the same truth in this way:

When the Word was hidden within God himself he was invisible to the created world, but God made him visible. First God gave utterance to his voice, engendering light from light, and then he sent his own mind into the world as its Lord. Visible before to God alone and not to the world, God made him visible so that the world could be saved by seeing him. This mind that entered our world was made known as the Son of God. All things came into being through him; but he alone is begotten by the Father.

We know that the Christ Child is “God from God, light from light, true God from true God,” as we profess at Christmas Mass. We know that “for us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven.” We know that he is Emmanuel, God-with-us, and as we read in Matthew’s Gospel, he is “with us always, until the end of the age.” He will never leave us.

Believing these truths, believing in Jesus Christ, changes our lives. It cannot be any other way. To know Jesus Christ is Lord means we must worship him. “Let us bring him silver and gold.” So says “Do You Hear What I Hear.” We bring to Christ our hearts and our lives. We worship him at Mass and at every moment of our Christmas celebration.

Every gift given and received, every party and every dinner, every joke and every hug, every word of greeting, encouragement, shared joy, and forgiveness, every “please” and “thank you” and “I’m sorry”, every chore done and song sung and memory cherished and every moment of quiet reflection as we look at the Nativity or the Christmas tree are all connected to the altar and, flowing from our Eucharistic worship, give “glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to people of good will.”

J.R.R. Tolkien powerfully captures the spirit that animates a true celebration of Christmas in this final stanza of his poem “Noel”:

Glad is the world and fair this night
With stars about its head,
And the hall is filled with laughter and light,
And fires are burning red.
The bells of Paradise now ring
With bells of Christendom,
And Gloria, Gloria we will sing
That God on earth is come.