Christmastide – the 12 days of Christmas, spanning
from Christmas Day (December 25) to Epiphany Eve “Twelfth Night” (January 5),
is meant to be an extended period of joyous celebration of the Nativity of
Christ. Many people associate the twelve
days of Christmas with the song that starts with this phrase: “On the first day of Christmas my true love
sent to me: a partridge in a pear tree…”. The title of this festive song is
“The Twelve Days of Christmas”, indeed.
In fact, on the first day of Christmas, our true love, who is God (as
God is love – 1 John 4:8, 16), sent to us: the greatest gift of all, His only
begotten Son! And for far more than 12 days, our true love – God – has been
sending to us countless gifts through the Son, Jesus Christ. We are indeed so grateful to God the Father,
the Creator and Sender for sending to us the greatest gift, the Son, the Savior
and Redeemer, to bring us to the Father and shepherd us into His Kingdom, where
he reigns as the King of the Universe, at His right hand.
Though we are filled with this Christmas joy and
gratefulness for the greatest gift from our true love, the Father in heaven,
the Christmastide also has two feast days of bloodsheds: the feast of St.
Stephen, the first martyr (December 26) and the feast of the Holy Innocents,
martyrs (December 28). These martyrdom feast days during the Christmastide are
stark reminders that there are some bloody aspects that come with the joy and
gratefulness of Christ the greatest gift to redeem and save us. St. Stephen was the first saint, who
willingly gave his life for Christ (Acts 6:8-10, 7:54-59). On the other hand,
the Holy Innocents were the children under age 2, massacred by Herod the Great,
in place of Jesus (Matthew 2:13-18). These children fell victim of Herod’s
uncontrollable rage to kill Jesus, simply because he could not find exactly
where Jesus was. But, why Herod had to kill Jesus, to begin with?
To understand Herod’s motive to kill Jesus, we need
to know that it all started with the Magi’s visit to Herod, asking him, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews?”
(Matthew 2:2). Imagine how Herod had felt, being asked, “Where is the newborn
king of the Jews?”. He was “the king of
the Jews” under the Roman rule, as Herod’s Jewish kingdom (Judah) was a
tributary state to the Roman Empire. Therefore, to Herod, it bothered him to
hear something indicative of another king other than him for the Jews. In response to the Magi’s inquiry about the
newborn king of the Jews, Herod implicated his intent to hunt this newborn
rival, saying, “Go and search diligently
for the child. When you have found him, bring me word, that I too many go and
do him homage”(Matthew 2:8). To this, the Magi, being wise, sensed Herod’s
evil intention, did not return to him after paying homage to the newborn king,
Jesus. However, this really enraged Herod (Matthew 2:16) and decided to kill
all children under age 2 throughout Bethlehem and its vicinity in his fury of
not being able to find exactly where his rival, the newborn king of the Jews,
Jesus, was (Matthew 2:16).
Apparently, Herod felt threatened by the newborn king
that the Magi mentioned. Clinically, given his lethal rage, Herod must have had
an extremely poor impulse control, associated with his psychological insecurity
(i.e. Gander & Buchheim, 2015)*. This psychopathological condition of Herod
could have made him react overly impulsively to a perceived threat in outbursts
of rage, suggesting that he had borderline personality disorder (i.e. Berenson
et al. 2011)**. He did not choose to
take time and make efforts to find Jesus. Rather, he decided to kill anyone who
was like Jesus: children under age 2 to eliminate a threat to him, compulsively.
Biblically, Herod’s psychopathology to commit massacre of the children is “phthonos”( φθόνος),
which is usually translated as “envy” or “grudge”. In fact, according to
Matthew 27:18, “phthonos” is what prompted
the chief priests to conspired the Roman authority to kill Jesus, later in his
life, making himself a martyr. When
Jesus was a young child of 2 years old or under, God spared him from being
massacred by Herod’s “phthonos”
(Matthew 2:13-15). However, after about 30 years from that, “phthonos” of the chief priests killed
him.
Perhaps, during Christmastide, we need to reflect on
the pathology of “phthonos”, which
sheds the bloods of the innocents: the children of the Bethlehem area and the
Son of God, Jesus. It is “phthonos”
that put a bloody stein in this festive Christmastide, remembered as the feast
of the Holy Innocents. And, one, whose adventus
(arrival) is celebrated and rejoiced over the season of Christmastide, was
later killed by “phthonos” of those
who find him as a great thereat.
While many people are responding to the adventus of Christ with joy and
gratefulness, some are reacting with “phthonos”,
as they are psychologically and spiritually insecure, like Herod the Great and
the chief priests. For us, who rejoice
over the birth of Christ over 12 days, Christ is the greatest gift of all. However,
for those who see him as their object of “phthonos”,
Christ is a great threat of their existence.
Those who think of themselves as “the king”, then,
the adventus of Christ the King can stir
up internal insecurity. Those who
consider themselves “the messiah”, Jesus the Messiah is a threat. In other
words, to narcissists, whose psychopathology revolves around insecurity, the
Christmastide, the Twelve Days of Christmas, can be very disturbing.
To find the Christmastide as the 12-day-long
extended period, filled with joy (chara (χαρά))
and gratefulness (eucharista (εὐχαριστία)),
rather than “phthonos”(
φθόνος), we must be humble, because humility enables us to find
unshakable psychospiritual secure attachment with God (Dwiwardani et al. ,
2014)***. Humility and security to
rejoice over the Christmastide, perhaps, we find Mary as our role model,
especially in these words of hers: I am
the handmaid of the Lord, May it be done to me according to your word (Luke
1:38). These words of Mary tell that she submitted her own will to the will of
God, in order to overcome her initial anxiety over God’s will on her to bear
His Son. Then, Mary’s words in Luke
1:46-55, known as Magnificat, which
in Latin means “my soul magnifies the Lord”, remind us that humility eventually
leads to joy of the soul magnifying the Lord, through secure attachment to
Him. In the Magnificat psychospiritual state, Christ does not invoke fear that
leads to “phthonos”. What enlarges is
not ego but our soul’s joy of receiving God’s favor – grace (charis (χάρις)), as we respond to the adventus of Christ with Mary-like
humility and secure attachment to God. Note
that “χάρ” is the common root for both joy (chara (χαρά)) and grace (charis
(χάρις)) and gratefulness (eucharista
(εὐχαριστία)).
For us to maximize our Christmastide joy and
gratefulness, by acknowledging the problem of “phthonos”, which spoils Christmas joy and kills the innocent,
including Christ, we need to strengthen “χάρ”(char/xar)
in our soul to magnify our joy (chara
(χαρά)) and gratefulness (eucharista
(εὐχαριστία)) over the greatest , grace (charis (χάρις)), who is Christ.
May our Christmastide be filled with “χάρ” and its derivatives: joy (chara
(χαρά)) and gratefulness (eucharista
(εὐχαριστία)) for the greatest , grace
(charis (χάρις)) that our true love
has sent to us!
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*Gander, M. & Buchheim, A. (2015). Attachment classification, psychophysiology
and frontal EEG asymmetry across the lifespan: a review, Frontier in Human Neuroscience, 9 (79), doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2015.00079
**Berenson, K. R., Downey, G., Rafaeli, E., Coifman,
K. G., & Leventhal Paquin, N. (2011, April 18). The Rejection–Rage
Contingency in Borderline Personality Disorder., Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Advance online publication. doi:
10.1037/a0023335
***Dwiwardani,D., Hill, P.C., Bollinger, R.A., Marks, L. E., Steele,
J.R., Doolin, H.N. , Wood, S.L., Hook, K. N., and Davis, D. E. (2014). Virtues Develop From a Secure Base:
Attachment and Resilience as Predictors of Humility, Gratitude, and Forgiveness,
Journal of Psychology & Theology,
42 (1), 83-90
