The Family at the Feast

The bells are ringing, the churches are opening, and the worshippers hasten to them. The houses are decked with flowers, and the little ones wake early, playing with horns and firecrackers and toys of every kind; they have put on new clothes, eaten the holiday foods and sweets, and received their friends, glad and merry. All this in their own room, or their garden, or the wing of the house set apart for them. But I want to ask: "Where are the parents?" Are they among those who spend their holiday apart, far from the family, in an atmosphere contrary to the spirit of the feast? Did they wake up late after a long evening at a party loud with drink, or around a gaming table, having planned a similar program for the day of the feast itself? Whoever enters such a house, though the outward shows of the feast may dazzle him — flowers and toys and foods and clothes — will nevertheless, if he looks closely, see a feast, but he will not see a family at the feast. The family, made up of parents and children, is the completion of the holidays. It is not enough for your child that you give him presents and lavish gifts upon him. He wants you near him, so that the feast may become a feast. The maid can dress him, feed him, and play with him. But only the mother and the father can make him feel the true feast and understand its meaning; they draw near to his spirit, his thoughts, and his feelings; they pass the time with him in play and amusement; they pray with him; and they make him understand the family spirit.

If the members of the household are to feel, on the day of the feast, that they are a family at a feast, the spirit of the feast must reign over the atmosphere. Have you, dear mother, spent even a little time before the feast inquiring into what occupies the little mind? Have you made the little ones understand the spirit of the feast? Have you tried to purge your children of envy, greed, and pride? Have you bound up some small wound in the heart of one of them with sweet words? Have you made the little ones feel that you and their father belong to them on the day of the feast, and that your friends will not succeed in wresting the two of you away from them, even if they set the gaming table for you? Have you played with the children, told them stories, and listened to their stories? Have you prayed with your children at home or at church? Have you reminded them of the poor, deprived of what they themselves enjoy? Have you taught them the words of the Lord of the feast? Have you explained to them the meaning of "Love your neighbor as yourself, and treat people as you would have them treat you"? If you have not done this, the feast remains a feast — but your house does not hold a family at a feast.

I can understand people spending New Year's Eve in the pleasure halls and the dance halls, greeting it with joy and laughter; but that they should spend Christmas Eve in the field of frivolity, that I cannot understand at all. Christmas has a religious meaning in which love, sacrifice, and purity are embodied. Let the parents spend it with their children, who are among God's blessings; and let the little ones spend it with their parents, who are also among God's blessings.