The holidays should not be defined by 'Black Friday'

I DON'T KNOW which holiday is more earnestly received: Thanksgiving or so-called Black Friday. We have passed through both of them and they are now behind us, with Christmas looming ever larger on the horizon.

Americans have traditionally placed a high premium on Thanksgiving as an opportunity to give thanks among family. It remains the busiest as far as traveling, but (I fear) not as far as gratitude is concerned.

I reference Black Friday as a "holiday" with humorous sobriety, because gratitude appears to have given way to an extravagance of greed, a greed that helps to set a tone for the duration of the holidays.

Are Thanksgiving and Christmas designed for hearts made precious by desire for family, appreciation for every good gift from God, and adoration of him from whom all blessings flow and for whom all things are created?

Or have they been appropriated by hearts made jaded by things that moths consume and thieves steal, by things that can't remain in our possession when we die, by things that can at best adorn, but all too often actually cheapen our lives?

I believe that most Americans remain grateful. A trail of loneliness and exhaustion, let alone debt, is the legacy of so much of today's greedy consumerism.

An instinct remains that there is something substantively better, but specifics are concretely needed. The instinct to survive, for instance, can parley into a program that kills, but wisdom provides a more fruitful outlet.

This is why I love Jesus and, with my life, promote the gospel. Christianity isn't simply some kind of pie-in-the-sky speculation, nor is it a grim, take-it-or-leave-it offer from some cosmic power of which we know little or nothing.

Christianity is a way of life that derives from a loving, wise, righteous, holy and sovereign God who made his desire for us so very real by sending his son into this world to identify with us, die for us, and make us ready for him when he returns.

Theologians speak of the Incarnation, when God was incarnated in human form because Jesus Christ, very God of very God, was born into this world, thereby becoming a man with whom we can identify because He understands us all too well.

St. Augustine said (to paraphrase) that our hearts have a hole, a hole that can be filled only by God. God beckons us to be so filled. Such is the message of Christmas.

So, too, Thanksgiving needn't ever be trumped by "Black Friday." He gave his life out of love, but supersales, however appealing, are conceived in greed, not love.

These are difficult times. Fear and anxiety are palpable. We can no longer look to government or the stock market for our security, but we can look to God.

He has never taken anything, he has simply given to us from his heart the one he dearly loves: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).

Therein abides the reason we may celebrate a holiday season for the heart; better, for hearts made content, happy and grateful. Give thanks to God and make merry, for Jesus Christ loves you!

Each Saturday the Daily News offers men and women of faith the opportunity to share their words of life and comfort with our readers. If you are a minister, a priest, a rabbi, or the head of another religious organization and would like to submit a faith-based column, contact Lorenzo Biggs at 215-854-5816, or by e-mail at biggsl@phillynews.com.