Dear friends in Christ, The perennial Christmas classic, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, has been revived again this year as a computer-generated feature-length movie entitled simply The Grinch. I have not seen it but have to admit I’m a little put off that someone stole Christmas from its title. Reviews are mixed, so let’s stick with the original 1957 book and the 1966 cartoon as we explore the meaning of Christmas. I basically believe the Grinch was right but not quite the way you might expect. A Modern Parable The familiar heart of the story is the Grinch’s transformation from Christmas-hater to Christmas-lover. As a child, I believed the Grinch’s meanness was his primary problem. It’s a common understanding, as evidenced by the fact that the word “grinch” has entered the English lexicon denoting someone who is mean. But as I got older, I began to appreciate that Dr. Seuss had created a parable about the commercialization of Christmas, which was already a routine lament in the United States by the mid-1950s. The Grinch was Right From this more grown-up perspective, I began to suspect that the Grinch was right about Christmas, at least in part. Much of what we do around Christmas would be rather obnoxious apart from its deeper meaning. If the Whos had been as venal as the Grinch initially believed, anger would have been the correct response. As many of you have heard me say in a much more serious context, anger is a healthy response to evil (if you missed what I said about anger and the Catholic scandals of 2018, you can click here). St. Thomas Aquinas even states that anger at evil is part of the virtue of Christian love. Misperception, Not Anger So the Grinch’s primary problem is misperception, not anger or meanness. He fails to perceive the deeper meaning of Christmas in Whoville until he strips away the externals by stealing everything associated with Christmas. But the moment the Grinch realizes his misperception, he is utterly transformed. His misdirected anger becomes rightly ordered love. The brilliance of Dr. Seuss’s parable is that it is ultimately not a Puritanical rant against externals but is rather an incarnational call to be transformed by the deeper meaning of our Christmas celebrations. Our Own Grinchy Misperceptions How are we doing with that deeper meaning? If you’re like me, you’re stung by failures, not only at Christmas but year round. Too often I get caught up in externals apart from their truly Christian meaning. But whether we’ve been good or bad, the hope of Christmas, this season of the Incarnation of Christ, is that Jesus is with us, especially as the Eucharist. In this regard, Jesus is a lot like the real hero of the parable of the Grinch: Max the dog. Max remains loyal despite the Grinch’s meanness and mistreatment, and Max always yearns for the best for everyone. So does Jesus. May our inner Grinches be transformed by the true meaning of Christmas: Jesus is with us and loves us every moment of our lives. Merry Christmas! Msgr. Bill Parent