DECEMBER 24, 25, 2017
SUNDAY 5:00 PM, MONDAY 8:00 AM ORDINARY FORM MASSES
Just a little over 50 years ago on CBS television, A Charlie Brown Christmas aired for the first time.
From a Hollywood perspective, it was destined to fail.
The actors were all actual children, and not adult voice actors.
Some of the children were so young that they couldn’t even read – and had to have their lines read to them so that they could repeat them for the recording.
Charles Schulz refused to allow the network to insert a laugh track. After all, it was the ‘60s, and every show had fake laughter and fake applause inserted throughout.
At its initial screening, the network executives thought it was terrible. Only one – slightly inebriated – animator in the back of the studio stood up and said, “It’s going to run for a hundred years,” before falling back down into his chair. Everybody thought he was nuts.
Well, we’re halfway through that century; and it seems that the experts were wrong.
In the show, with only five minutes left, Charlie Brown throws his hands up and shouts:
Isn't there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?At which time, Linus takes center stage and proclaims the very same Gospel we all just heard proclaimed at Mass – taken from St. Luke’s Gospel chapter two.
And at the moment that Linus quotes the words of the angel:
Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.He drops his blanket.
You know what I’m talking about – Linus’ constant companion – that blue security blanket.
There are countless Peanuts comic strips dedicated to Linus and his security blanket. Wrestling with Snoopy who wants to play tug-of-war … arguing with Lucy about giving it up … even phone calls with his grandmother who tries to bribe him to let it go.
But only here – at the message of an angel – does he drop his blanket.
For ourselves, if you watch the news for even a few minutes … it would seem that there’s an awful lot of bad news out there.
And you can’t blame a person for hanging onto something … anything … for security.
The good news of Jesus Christ – the Gospel – can help us to let go of those fears … to “Fear not.” And that may be fine for a time, but then we still have to go back out into the same world we just left.
And so, in the show, only one short minute later, Linus finishes his soliloquy and picks up his blanket, and walks off stage.
Charlie Brown ends up abandoning his pathetic little tree, and with less than two minutes remaining, Linus finds the tree and this time he surrenders his blanket … wrapping it around the base of that little rejected tree, saying:
Maybe it just needs a little love.Because, you see, Jesus came into the world to die for our sins. An no matter how scary the world is, if we put our faith 100% in Him – we too can leave our concerns and fears and worries at the foot of His Cross … that Glorious Tree on which He died for our salvation.
As we approach this altar to receive the Sacred Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, let us open ourselves to that saving grace poured out for us. Let us drop whatever false security we may be holding onto, and leave our fears and concerns at the foot of His Cross. Knowing that in the end, maybe all we need is a little love … God’s love … in our lives.
Because … this Baby, this Child, born in Bethlehem – “. . . is Christ and Lord.”
And “That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.”
