Reclaiming the True Meaning of Christmas: The True St. Nicholaus

Hello again everyone! First off let me start by saying Merry Christmas (yes, still within the twelve days, so this is still a valid greeting)! I pray that the birth of Christ is filling all with a renewed hope. In most recent post I wrote a short piece on the writings of St. Leo the great. The idea of that post was a reminder to myself and others that Christ is to be the center of Christmas.

The message transcends time. It is not just simply celebrating the event. No, we must accept Christ into our hearts. The new born Christ must now be given a place at the inn, for if we do not open our hearts to Him, we leave Him cold like He was that night. I say this especially for myself.

It is there that we can really truly reclaim what the the season is. That being said there are things that stem from it as well. So today I want to talk about Santa Claus, sort of. By this I mean to try as much as possible to unwrap (forgive the pun here) who the man behind the suit is. Yes we have the cultural image of Santa Claus, Chris Kringle, or Jolly Old St. Nick, but there was a real person behind this. No he did not have reindeer or live in the North Pole or even come down chimneys, but there is a reason for the character.

The real person was actually a bishop. A man now canonized as Saint Nicholas. But who was he and why is he honored?

The reality is that very little is known about him. All that is really known about him is that he was a fourth century bishop in Myra which is in Lycia, in Asia minor. The real famous story about him has to do with his charity towards a singular man (not to say that the bishop was not charitible to anyone else but this story is seemingly the best known). The man who Saint Nicholaus helped was a poor man who was unable to find appropriate suiters for his daughters of marrying age. Rather than see them sold off into prostitution, Nicholas secretly threw a bag of gold through the window on three different occasions. As a result, the man's daughters were able to get married.

Later on, this story evolved into the traditions of gift giving on St. Nicholas' feast. Eventually the name Santa Claus was born from a twist of tongue. Which brings me to the real man himself and what he exemplifies.

In this season of giving we have to remember why we give. You see we are not to give for the purposes of receiving. Instead, the giving is out of love towards the other. It is a sincere charity of heart. And that really is the example that Nicholas sets. That and the love of the poor preached by Christ.

So now, as we contemplate why we give, let us remember the true St. Nicholas. A bishop leading a holy life by God's grace and prompted by charity to serve the other with nothing in it for himself. It was Saint Francis who said, "it is in giving that we receive," because we often find that we receive more than we give. But the goal is to give without getting anything back. Friends, let us remember this during Christmas and always.