Christmas is above all a season of hope, a chance to throw off all the media induced fear porn we have been bombarded with over the past eleven months and to renew our faith and hope in the One who alone conquers fear and death. Fear is the enemy of both true faith and hope, as the recent pandemic has so copiously illustrated. I say true faith and hope because today we are presented with a counterfeit version of faith and hope which contradicts, and even opposes, those great theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity whose proper object is the Son of God, of whose birth we are celebrating.

The fear mongers in today’s world are working hard and long to distort and secularize the authentic theological virtues so that they are no longer religious, rather they become transformed into humanist values. Faith thus becomes a misplaced faith in human science and progress, not faith in God and His providence. Our hope is no longer for eternal salvation but only a brighter future here on earth. Charity which is an ardent love for God becomes an exaggerated love and concern for nature and the planet. In order to draw our minds away from contemplating the divine Creator as the proper object of faith, hope, and love, the enemies of God are using fear to heighten anxieties over temporal concerns. Thus they redirect the theological virtues towards purely materialistic ends. And the catalyst they have used over and again to effect this devilish transformation is fear.