Dec. 25 is a date that even non-Christians recognize – and many even celebrate – as the day Jesus Christ was born in the little town of Bethlehem. But was Christ really born on Dec. 25? Some claim the Church only chose this date as a way of co-opting an older pagan winter-solstice holiday in an attempt to gain converts, and it really has nothing to do with Christ’s birth.
All of a sudden, after a year of near biblical pestilence, horrid violence in our streets and insanity within the Body Politic, we come again to the season of Advent, when we find ourselves waiting for the birth of Jesus Christ under the bright star of Bethlehem. Let us hope that star will shine down on the woes of this unfortunate year and give us, in the miracle of the manger, a measure of peace.