By DONALD DeMARCO
The word “revolution” has interesting and diverse shades of meaning. The simplest one refers to the action of a celestial body as it goes around an orbit. The Earth, for example, revolves around the sun and returns to its starting point. It is a revolution that takes one year to complete.
The second meaning is very much the opposite of the first. It refers to the forcible overthrow of a government or social order in favor of a new system. In this case, a revolution does not return to the starting point but fosters a radical change.
Three major revolutions of this kind come to mind: the French Revolution, the Russian Revolution, and the American Revolution. Such violent revolutions do not always have happy results. The French Revolution led to the Napoleonic Wars, the Russian Revolution ushered in atheistic Communism. The American Revolution established a democratic form of government, although there are force currently at work that are tilting it in the direction of socialism.
We also speak of a revolution in terms of adopting new forms of practical operations. Thus, we speak of the automotive revolution or the computer revolution or any of the various types of broad changes brought about by technology.
The fourth meaning of the word revolution applies to Christmas. The Nativity is a revolution that merely requires a reconfiguration of the elements that are already present. This reconfiguration that Christmas inaugurates, though not requiring force, bloodshed, or adopting new lifestyles, represents, nonetheless, a most radical change, one that, if carried out, will truly renew the face of the world and bring about great joy and personal satisfaction.
Christmas is the revolution that surpasses all other revolutions. A little historical background may be helpful in grasping the revolutionary characters of Christmas.
In ancient Rome, the father dominated the family. As “paterfamilias” (head of the family), he had absolute rule over his household. If his children angered him, he had the legal right to disown them, sell them into slavery, or even kill them. Sons were preferred. The birth of a female could be her death warrant. The father came first, the mother was his subordinate and was required to do his bidding. The child was a distant third. Such was the world into which Christ was born.
The Nativity represents a reversal of the family order. Christmas is obviously not Father’s Day or Mother’s Day, but the celebration of the birth of a child. Thus, the child comes first, the mother second, and the father, third. Christmas represents a revolution, one that is often hidden amidst the distractions of festive celebrations.
G.K. Chesterton, in The Everlasting Man, with characteristic clarity, conciseness, and good cheer, contrasts the Holy Family with the mere human family: “The old Trinity was of father and mother and child and is called the human family. The new [one] is of child and mother and father and has the name of the Holy Family. It is in no way altered except in being entirely reversed; just as the world which is transformed was not in the least different, except in being turned upside-down.”
King Henry VIII exemplified the paterfamilias arrangement in divorcing his wife for bearing him a daughter and not a son. It was not important to him that his child was a human being. He was the lord and master and required a son in order to sustain his marriage.
The current pro-abortion position represents a rejection of the child-mother-father arrangement and the institution of a materfamilias rule in which the mother dominates and reserves the option of doing away with her child in the womb. The father has no right to veto and the child has no right to live.
Many people are accustomed to thinking about Christmas in terms of gift-giving, celebrations, caroling, good food, well-wishes, Christmas trees, and Santa Claus. Apart from these distractions, however, lies, often ignored, the greatest revolution in human history. “Let us rejoice, for a child has been born.” The child is at the center of the family and receives the love of his parents.
The abortion mentality represents a profile of the “unholy family,” in contrast to its pro-life anagrammatic companion. Christmas urges us to recognize the superiority of the holy family in which the child is foremost and lovingly supported by both his parents. In this sense, the family is unified. The child is the center to which all radii converge.
Abortion is divisive, separating the unborn child from his parents, the wife from her husband, the child from whatever siblings he might have, as well as separations from grandparents and other relatives. According to the unholy family, relatives are no longer relatives, but simply bystanders. Abortion causes a ripple of destruction that has, if unchecked, no limit.
The transformation of paterfamilias into materfamilias does not represent true human progress. It is merely the transitioning from one disordered arrangement to another that is equally malevolent.
As Chesterton suggests, we can transform the world without adding anything new. All that is needs is a change in the order of the family so that the family is whole and, as such, is better able to carry out its proper function and achieve its destiny.
Even if a person does not regard Christmas as an essentially religious event, he can nonetheless appreciate the revolutionary quality that it represents. The family is the basic unity of society. A broken family inevitably brings about a broken society and a broken world. There can be no peace as long as there is disunity on a fundamental level. Merry Christmas rings hollow unless we realize that, in according the child primacy, the world will be set on its proper course.
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