Christmas giftThree million euros. That is the amount that the American singer and songwriter Mariah Carey pockets every Christmas in royalties and reproductions of her well-known Christmas song "All I Want for Christmas is You". Curious that a song that talks about the importance of Christmas being about people over material things is one of the gold mines in the history of the music business. And for you, what is more important: money or your family, your pocket or the people around you?
The battle between two lords
The constant struggle between selfishness and generosity is part of the human condition. Every day we have to choose between sharing and accumulating; between others and myself; in short, between God and money.
Jesus, in the GospelThe Bible warns us very seriously about this battle, because it surpasses human strength. He puts money on the level of God and teaches us that: "No one can serve two masters. For he will despise the one and love the other; or, on the contrary, he will be devoted to the first and disregard the second. You cannot serve God and money". Even Satan does not care so much! Money is the true Nemesis of God. It is he who confronts us with our Creator who makes himself present in each of our brothers and sisters, especially in the poorest. He is the one who breaks the communion between human beings and is behind so many wars, murders, family breakdowns and exploitation of people.
That is why, at Christmas, when we are supposed to be more united, the "other" Christmas bursts in: the commercial one, the one of consumption beyond our means, the one of the extra pay, the one of the early sales, the one of the Christmas bonuses, the one of the gifts or the one of the lottery and the special raffles.
It is hard to swim against the current in this river that drags us down every year (whoever is free from sin should throw the first peel), but it is good to remind ourselves year after year that Christmas is the great feast of the poor, of the "anawin" - Hebrew word with which the Bible refers to the simple people willing to let themselves be found by God, like those shepherds. Benedict XVI He explained the meaning that Jesus gives to poverty in this way: "It presupposes above all to be interiorly free from the lust for possession and the lust for power. It is a greater reality than simply a different distribution of goods, which would be limited to the material realm and would rather harden hearts. Above all, it is a matter of the purification of the heart, thanks to which possession is recognized as a responsibility, as a task towards others, placing oneself under the gaze of God and allowing oneself to be guided by Christ who, being rich, made himself poor for us. Interior freedom is the prerequisite for overcoming the corruption and greed that ruin the world; this freedom can only be found if God becomes our wealth; it can only be found in the patience of daily renunciations, in which it develops as true freedom".
False freedom
The fact is that, in the face of the false freedom that money offers us (it promises us that with it we can do many things, but the truth is that it condemns us to be its slaves because it never seems sufficient), poverty of spirit, the renunciation of everything that the market offers us, always putting God before the desire for money, frees us from bonds.
Some may think that this warning of Jesus is only for the members of the Forbes list, but even the person who is materially poor - the German pope continues - can "have a heart filled with the lust for material wealth and the power that comes from wealth. Precisely the fact that he lives in envy and greed shows that, in his heart, he belongs to the rich. She desires to change the distribution of goods, but in order to become herself in the situation of the formerly rich".
So, let's check where we have our treasure, because that is where our heart is and money is a bad payer. Therefore, this Christmas we should perhaps buy less lottery, let go of the ballast that there are many needy around us and get closer to the portal to contemplate that child, poor of solemnity, who is born in Bethlehem. Once there, I advise you to look into his eyes and sing to him, even if it is bad and even if it means putting a few cents more in Mariah Carey's bulging cap, "All I want for Christmas is you".
Journalist. Graduate in Communication Sciences and Bachelor in Religious Sciences. He works in the Diocesan Delegation of Media in Malaga. His numerous "threads" on Twitter about faith and daily life have a great popularity.
Christmas gift
