SAINT NICHOLAS HAS COME A LONG WAY: from being a fourth century bishop in the distant Roman province of Lycia, through innumerable pious legends, until he became “Sinter Klaas,” which is older Dutch for Saint Nicholas; in our day Americans have turned him into Santa Claus, patron saint of the seasonal commandment to shop until you drop. What should Christians do about Santa Claus? Reject him or reclaim him? I suggest we reclaim him.
The important thing is that he was a holy man. That is why he is called Saint Nicholas, for saint simply means holy. Now holiness takes many forms. From the stories that Christians told over the centuries, the strikingly holy thing about Nicholas is that he had learned from Jesus what we might call the law of the gift.
The law of the gift is very simple, although most of us have a hard time learning it and an even harder time living it. The law of the gift is this: the more you give, the more you receive.
Jesus taught the law of the gift in many different ways. For instance, in Matthew 25 he tells the parable of the talents. (A talent was a form of money worth about a thousand dollars today.) One person received five talents, another two, and yet another one. Those who received five and two talents put them to work, investing wisely, and doubled their money. The master in the parable says to each, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” The man with one talent, however, fearfully hung on to what he had been given, lest he lose it, and he ended up losing even what he had. We may take the parable as a lesson in money management, but much, much more important, it is a lesson in how to live.
“I came,” Jesus said, “that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” To live abundantly is to live generously; it is to live the law of the gift.
The entire life and mission of Jesus is a gift beyond all expectation. Leaving behind the glory that was his as the Son of God, he gave himself to our sorry human circumstance, even to the point of dying our death on the cross. Having given all, he received all, for he was raised in glory to welcome as his brothers and sisters all who follow him and will live with him forever.
To live the law of the gift means to give of what we have and what we are, and to do so not calculating immediate returns but trusting the promise of eternal reward. Even now we have a taste of that reward as we discover in giving, the key to spiritual greatness, the key to life abundant.
That was the greatness, also known as holiness, of Saint Nicholas, whom we know as Santa Claus.
~Adapted from Richard John Neuhaus, “Feast of Saint Nicholas,” in GOD WITH US: Rediscovering the Meaning of Christmas, edited by Greg Pennoyer & Gregory Wolfe
