It’s the season when we all wish each other Joyous Christmas, Blessed Hanukkah, Happy Holidays! During this beautiful time, our spirits are warmed by treasured Christmas memories from days of yore, by the fun of giving gifts and gratitude for gifts received, visiting family and friends, and the sharing of cards, concerts, choirs, carols, cookies, meals and other cherished favorites. The blessings of December enrich our lives annually.
Our Judeo-Christian heritage provides the foundation for December blessings. Hanukkah, also known as the Festival of Lights, is a Jewish religious festival commemorating recovery of Jerusalem through a successful revolt led by the Maccabees, the heroes of Hanukkah, and subsequent rededication of the Second Temple during the turbulent times following the death of Alexander the Great. In the aftermath of the revolt, the desecrated temple had only enough oil for one ritual nightly lighting of the menorah. However, by a miracle from God, that small amount of oil was able to last for eight days, giving Jewish worshippers enough time to procure more.
Advent, meaning “coming” is four weeks of study and reflection Christians use to prepare for Christmas eve and Christmas day celebrations of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. Each week a new candle is lit recognizing Hope, Peace, Love and Joy. Luke Chapter 2:10-11 says, “I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.”
But a pall hangs over celebrations this year. Americans increasingly are worried that the country is on “the wrong track” and that the world is becoming a dangerous place. A Rasmussen Report poll at the end of November showed only 29% of us say the U.S. is heading in the right direction. Most of us are tired of Covid fears and restrictions, empty shelves in stores, increasing crime rates and drug use/deaths, open borders and high gas prices. We are regressing via identity politics to erase Dr. Martin Luther King’s message of character rather than color, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Title IX Education Amendments of 1972 and to cancel the astounding increase in wealth and citizen well-being of the last fifty years.
Many are distressed that our basic inalienable rights contained in the Bill of Rights are being trampled, and that the Constitutional structural balance of three branches of government and federalism protecting the sovereignty of the states and of the citizens who consent to be governed is being destroyed and may not be recoverable. Our society is stagnating and spiraling downward, creating the potential for deep future economic and political woes that could one day resemble the disasters of Cuba and Venezuela.
Moreover, Americans seem increasingly unwilling to see or hear one another. Polls reveal not just polarization, but also deep pessimism that divisiveness can be repaired. On December. 8, former Governor Marc Racicot said, “A people who cannot talk or listen to each other, who do not respect each other, who will not sincerely consider the thoughts of each other, who do not trust each other and who cannot reason with each other, cannot long live in freedom.”
Our nation has seen this sort of division before. The issues of slavery and equitable commerce among the states had festered since compromises were adopted to enable adoption and ratification of the U.S. Constitution, and the Civil War began in 1861 after Abraham Lincoln was elected President. Brothers killed brothers; nearly 700,000 died.
While at dinner on Dec. 1, 1863, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow received a telegraph at home in Cambridge, Mass., that his son, Charles, had been shot and was severely wounded. Through his “trouble and anxiety” that December, Longfellow wrote the poem, “Christmas Bells,” which remains popular today as the song, “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.”
I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
and wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along
The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!…
It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
And in despair I bowed my head;
There is no peace on earth, I said;
“For hate is strong, and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men.”
May the bells on Christmas day this year remind each one of us of the Christ candle, or the heart of your own faith tradition, so that we all may be infused with hope, peace, love and joy. May we be inspired to celebrate the triumph of light over darkness, to work to recover what we are losing, to nurture our freedom daily, and to stand strong for our rich heritage and blessings of December. As always, I am grateful and blessed to call Montana home.
Hamman, a Clancy resident, is former deputy director of the Montana Governor’s Office of Budget and Program Planning.
