I was left wondering how this guide could have dismissed such an amazing work of art so swiftly. But worse than this – though she’d summarised the church’s traditional teaching about the epiphany gifts accurately enough – she’d completely missed his painting’s central moment of epiphany. This is revealed in the relationship between kneeling magi and newly born baby. Since as arms strain to meet, and eyes and hearts connect, what is uncovered is the truth that tired humanity can rediscover its truest identity through relationships. In short, people matter more than presents.
\nBut the chapel guide wasn’t alone in missing the obvious. Since in contemporary culture it’s the seasonal gifts that take centre-stage rather than the relationships they’re meant to celebrate. It’s not just the money we lavish on “bath salts and inexpensive scent … the hideous tie, so kindly meant”, as John Betjeman’s famous caricature puts it. Or the sinister commercialism behind this. It’s the debilitating culture of debt to which so many haplessly surrender themselves<\/p>\n
But if this smacks of a rant against the capitalism and secularism at the heart of Christmas, let’s be clear: it was the church who set us on a path that sees the gifts so often extolled at the expense of the relationships to which they point.<\/p>\n