Ring the Bells

 

Hail, Santa Claus

“He’s a holy figure, and yet I don’t want to take the fun away from him and make him into a humorless saint. After all, his jovial spirit and sense of generosity are precisely what make him holy.”

Thomas Moore (The Soul of Christmas, p.118; Franciscan Media, 2016)

          Let’s talk Santa. Thomas Moore has an entire chapter in his Christmas book that’s titled, “Santa, the Holy One.” In it he reminds us of what has been long forgotten—that Santa Claus was a saint first. St. Nicholas. There have been books written about the shamanic nature of Saint Claus—who else could fly through the sky with a pack of reindeer and somehow drop gifts into every home on planet Earth? In one night!

Everything about the Santa story is mythical—he lives, not at the Mall, but at the North Pole, which Moore describes as, “a special liminal place, a kind of utopian nowhere.” He has a wife in that mystical place of flying reindeer, and a workshop run by elves that churns out millions of toys in response to requests from children all over the world. And, somehow, they all fit into the sleigh. Anyone who’s ever had a toy chest knows how impossible that is. But Santa’s a magic shaman, so he can bend matter to make it all fit.

Thomas Moore compares Santa’s nature to Jesus’ nature—kind, light-hearted, generous, and a great lover of children. We don’t see much of that in the books that made it into the New Testament, but if you read the Gnostic Gospels, you will meet a different Jesus—one who sings and dances with his disciples and who turns water into wine for a wedding in Cana. He laughs a lot—not Ho-ho-ho, but real joyful laughter.

The bells that Santa wears, the sound associated with his presence, are an accoutrement of his shamanic heritage, and his spiritual credentials. In high mass, during the processional, the thurifer swings a censer of frankincense, and bells are rung. We have carillon bells and gongs and chimes and every sort of bell that is rung to mark the beginning and end of holy rituals in all religions. Thus, it is with Saint Claus. His mission is holy, and his sound is that of bells.

So many of our Christmas traditions have been reduced to the mundane by commercialism—none so much as Santa Claus. We see him as a fat, jolly, old elf, a jester more than a saint. But, when we change our understanding of him, when we take him out of the Mall, and put him squarely into the pantheon of saints, we may appreciate Santa as the holy figure that he is. He’s a kind and generous saint, a powerful shaman, and a bringer of good cheer. He comes to visit us in the darkest part of the year when we need the light of kindness and generosity most. Suffice it to say, Santa brings the magic of Christmas alive. HO-HO-HO!

                                                  In the Spirit,

                                                  Jane