A birthday party for the new humanity

On Christmas Day, we celebrate the birth of the man who repudiated the violent path of obsessive taking (which René Girard called acquisitive mimesis) and blazed the new path of generous self-giving. Our mutual gift-giving then echoes the self-giving of God in Christ. And the celebration of Christ’s birth becomes a birthday party, not just for Jesus but also for the new humanity that transcends and includes all previous identities. Imagine, beginning on Christmas Day, the expansive possibilities of the twelve days of Christmas—rescued from the banality of geese a-laying and lords a-leaping: each day devoted to celebrating a different aspect of the love of God for all humanity, starting with the poor, the vulnerable, the last, the least, and the lost.