Refuse crass consumerism

OVER- the- top decorations, marketing gimmicks, shopping extravaganzas, and the ubiquitous trash created by the holiday frenzy have increasingly shrouded the true meaning of the Yuletide celebration. The highly commercialized observance of the holidays and other popular festivities aggravates the country’s environmental and health problems. Unfettered consumption eats up huge quantities of raw materials and energy, and generates all types of wastes and pollutants, including greenhouse gas emissions that cause our planet to heat up.

Also, such t houghtless celebrations predictably produce tons upon tons of trash due to the consumption spree. Household bins brim over with mixed discards, while stinking “guerilla” dumpsites mushroom in street corners, sidewalks and vacant lots. Plastic bags, disposable containers, packaging materials, kitchen waste and party leftovers from the flurry of activities usually end up in poor communities where these are dumped or burned, endangering the health of residents with toxic pollution.

Let us pay attention to the ecological and health costs of the choices we make this Christmastime. In celebrating the holidays, can’t we hew closer to the essence and simplicity of the first Christmas and, as real stewards of God’s creation? Can’t we refuse crass consumerism and rejoice in a simple and ecological celebration? Originally a joyous celebration of the Redeemer’s birth in the simplicity and poverty of a manger, Christmas has transformed into a pageant of unbridled consumerism and has become the most wasteful and most energy- consuming festivity in the Christian calendar. Following the example of the Babe in the Manger, Christmas should be a time of strengthening His light within us so that we can give, receive and spread the real gifts of Christmas – hope, love, charity, peace and joy.

We pray that we will have more of this inner radiance and less of the store-bought glitter and pomp that quickly fade away at the end of the season.