This year it has become the thing among many of my peers to revel in the fact that once considered Jesus-less greeting X-mas need not be thought of as an arrow shot in the war against Christmas. You see, in Greek the letter “chi†looks like an X and happens to be the first letter in the Greek word for Christ. Early in the church, the first two letters of that word, “chi†and “ro†were often used as an abbreviation for Christ. The symbol you see to the left was and is still is used in many places. So many of my Greek knowing friends are having fun sticking it to those Christians who do not understand all of this and are concerned with Christ being left even out of the word Christmas.
My even more snarky friends are reveling in the fact the “mas†part of the word actually refers to the old word for the divine service, mass. They are using this as a way to remind people that being where God gives out his gifts in truly the best way to celebrate this holiday. And when they explain that, it is a good reminder. But often the statement is just “Don’t take the Mass out of Christmas.â€
I suppose the MVPs of inside baseball might just say, “Don’t take the Mass out of X-mas†and round the bases high fiving the other players.
If you are truly in a place where everyone knows the secret handshakes of the team, these posts are fine. But in public places like Facebook walls, realize that playing inside baseball around those not on the team does no good. While it may not be nearly as thought out and calculated, keep the Christ in Christmas will do far better where normal people live.
