Santa Clara University

Christmas Letter 2005

Santa Clara Mission

Dear Students, Staff, Faculty and Friends:

 

This season, so sacred to Christians, offers a precious opportunity to inspire people of all religions to appreciate our diversity as a blessing. I see this holy season as a time to set aside permanently our differences and to see others as gifts to us. Together, may we hope for the day when the knowledge of the Holy One will cover the earth as water covers the seas; when people of differing faiths, races, orientations, and national origins can sit down at the same table to share food and drink, stories, ideas, and gratitude for each other.

In this spirit, I want to wish you and your family and friends a merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, a festive Kwanzaa, the blessings of Ramadan which ended recently, or the peace-filled experience of your own religious tradition.

We all understand that God is not found in the frenzy of shopping, much less in the hurtful language of political

“We all understand that God is not found in the frenzy of shopping...the list could go on. But in the end, we personify holiness in our world when we love tenderly, act justly, and walk humbly together with God and each other.”

—Paul Locatelli, S.J.

invective. Rather, we discover God when we reflect on who we are as a human family and how we can become good neighbors to each other. God is in the Christian celebration of the birth of Jesus as the entrance of God into human history. So too God can be found in the Muslim celebration of Ramadan, their month of blessing marked by prayer, fasting, and charity, and in the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah, the festival of lights. The Kwanzaa celebration, which reaffirms traditional African values of family and community, offers important guiding principles about how we should live in the world.

We all can point to national examples of where God is not found. As the shopping day after Thanksgiving approached, major networks reported how retailers were taking Christmas out of their marketing strategies and stores. In some stores, even Santa Claus was in jeopardy. Upset, some people called for boycotts of retailers like Target and Wal-Mart. Their fear: Christmas was becoming too secular. Then we saw on the front pages of newspapers and on television photos and reports of the shopping frenzy on that so-called "Black Friday." "Ugly" best describes the selfishness, greed, rampant consumerism, and uncouth behavior as shoppers pushed aside and even stepped on others to get first crack at some discounted item. Suddenly I was glad cautious retailers had distanced the notion of shopping in their stores from Christmas and the holiness of this season.

In the name of civil liberties, some politicians have also strained to keep even the smallest allusions to God out of public displays. In Massachusetts, for example, controversy brewed over whether to call the tree in the Boston Common a Christmas tree or a holiday tree. For now, the mayor of Boston declared it is a Christmas tree. In the future, who knows? In Florida, two different city councils tried to prohibit the display of a Nativity scene in the public square while permitting a Star of David and Menorah. Why? Because, as one lawyer argued, the Menorah is not a religious symbol. What was he thinking? How do some miss the point so badly? Why are we so divided? Why not let any legitimate religious symbol related to a holy day be displayed? It would not violate the principle of separation of church and state, but rather foster religious freedom and the Constitution’s guarantee of the right to express one’s views.

God is not discovered in contentious debate about trees or holy days or the commercialization of holidays. God is discovered in the sincere expression of religious love. On a daily basis God beholds us and gives us grace for our prayer and work. In fact, God’s grace is constantly and powerfully at work in our world, especially when people of diverse backgrounds cherish each other as one human family and use their gifts for the good of the community. God is visible in our love of our families and in our love of neighbor – be it a co-worker, a recent immigrant from Asia and Latin America, the gay and lesbian, the poor who lost their homes in New Orleans, the African suffering from AIDS, the friend dying of cancer, the wealthy reaching out to victims of poverty and natural disasters . . . the list could go on. But in the end, we personify holiness in our world when we love tenderly, act justly, and walk humbly together with God and each other.

We see the hand print of God as well as signs of hope and peace in the worldwide response to the terrible natural

“Through that goodness may God help us to bring unity and tranquility to our troubled world.”

—Paul Locatelli, S.J.

disasters of the last year: the desire to accompany, to pray for, and to send help and funds to the victims of the tsunami in South Asia, the hurricanes on the Gulf Coast and in Central America, and the devastating earthquake in Kashmir. These human gestures are visible signs of our love of God and God’s love for all people.

My prayer for you this year is that God’s great love be felt by you and those you love and that God’s love will increase your recognition of, and hope in, the goodness of others. Through that goodness may God help us to bring unity and tranquility to our troubled world. Then will we see, as the ancient prophets envisioned, people of all nations streaming toward the holy mountain of peace.

Blessings of the season,

Paul Locatelli, S.J.