I know that many of you will fondly remember his preaching as well, and will probably think, as I do, of Fr. Gannon reaching into the well of the pulpit, producing one of his beloved Peanuts figures, and placing it on top here, as he told one of Charles Schulz’s illustrated stories and related it to the Gospel message.
We’re currently observing the 60th anniversary year of the Peanuts strip, and I recently read a biography and history of Charles Schulz and the comic strip that very much defined his life. One of the particularly striking stories it contained was the one surrounding the production of the great TV classic: A Charlie Brown Christmas.
In 1964, CBS executives approached Schulz and asked if he would write a Christmas TV special to be sponsored by Coca-Cola. In just six months’ time, Schulz wrote the story and drew the cartoon, Bill Melendez did the animation, and Vince Guaraldi composed the now famous soundtrack.
And today we all know the story well. While his sister, friends, and even his dog are all excited for the arrival of Christmas, Charlie Brown is depressed.
“I think there must be something wrong with me, Linus,” Charlie Brown says to his best friend. “Christmas is coming, but I’m not happy. I don’t feel the way I’m supposed to feel. I just don’t understand Christmas I guess. I like getting presents, and sending Christmas cards, and decorating trees and all that, but I’m still not happy. I know I should be happy but I’m not. I sort of feel let down.”
Finally, after all his attempts at holiday cheer have failed, Charlie Brown cries out in exasperation: “Isn’t there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?!”
And of course, as you will undoubtedly remember, Linus Van Pelt comes to the rescue – he stands up on the school auditorium stage, asks for the lights to be lowered, and he recites the very verses from Luke’s Gospel that we’ve just heard tonight . . . “Behold I bring you tidings of great joy which shall be for all people: for unto you, is born this day, in the city of David, a savior which is Christ the Lord.”
And when Linus finishes – the soundtrack hushed and the audience listening in – he walks over to his friend and says the simple, yet powerful punch-line: “That’s what Christmas is really all about, Charlie Brown.”
What most amazed me about the story of the show’s production was how close we came to never hearing Linus proclaim this Gospel and speak that powerful witness to Charlie Brown. Whereas Schulz was proud that the show would climax with “one whole minute of Linus’ recitation,” the CBS executives who had ordered the show were queasy about such an explicitly religious message in a children’s Christmas special. They feared that faithful Christians would be upset at the use of Scripture in something so profane as a cartoon – and they feared that non-Christians would think it too overtly Christian.
But when the producers tried to talk Charles Schulz out of his plan to feature Luke’s Nativity, he wasn’t having any of it. When they said that “religion and entertainment didn’t mix on television,” Schulz is reported to have said, “we have to get the passage of St. Luke in there – if we don’t do it, who will?”
When the half hour special aired at 7:30 pm on December 9th, 1965 the executives at CBS still thought they’d produced a flop. But around the country, half of all televisions in the nation – some fifteen and a half million households – were watching the Peanuts.
The next day, the critics called it an instant classic: “The New York World-Telegram proclaimed Linus’ recitation ‘quite simply, the dramatic highlight of the season,’ and letters poured into CBS, thanking Charles Schulz for ‘keeping Christ in Christmas.” Months later, the special won both a Peabody and an Emmy – it’s been aired every year since 1965.
I don’t think it’s at all a stretch to suggest that the reason the special was so well received, and remains so beloved today, is that it captures quite well how each of us struggles to keep our focus on the real meaning of Christmas.
But, as Charles Schulz knew so well, it is the simplicity and power of the Nativity story that can still call us back to the feast’s true meaning, and bring us the true happiness that only ever eludes us if we search in decorations and presents.
That’s why he was so insistent that Luke’s Gospel be included in the show – and why he said, “if we don’t do it, who will?”
Friends, just as “God’s chosen people, the children of Israel, had lived in intense expectation, waiting for the Messiah that God had promised,” so too our world today, longs to find the meaning and peace that can only come from God.
The real good news of Christmas, conveyed so well in that Peanuts special, is that Luke’s Gospel is not merely a sweet children’s story or a fantastic myth: Luke’s account of that first Christmas is detailed proof that all that God had promised and foretold through the prophets had come true.
And so, even today, the Nativity reminds us that “God is always faithful to His promises.” He has not abandoned us, He is not distant or foreign, He does not delight in our suffering or pain.
Rather, the child born in Bethlehem is God Incarnate. “Out of love for us, God has taken upon Himself our human condition, our fragility, our vulnerability and He has opened for us the path that leads to the fullness of life, to a share in the life of God Himself.” All our burdens and pains, our longings and loses are all swallowed up in the victory He begins to accomplish as a tiny, helpless child in a manger.
This is “what Christmas is really all about,” and it is precisely this that the world needs to have proclaimed to it, and made real for it – and “if we don’t do it, who will?”
In a special way, I want to welcome and make an invitation to anyone who has been away from the Church, or who doesn’t regularly join us for Sunday Mass: You are missed! Welcome home, and please continue to join us each week for Mass. We need you to help us tell the world this fabulous good news of Christmas.
Brothers and sisters, our prayer for one another this Christmas is that we will all know the true meaning and true joy of Christmas – not just this evening, and not just during this season, but throughout the year. And that we will all live our lives in such a way, that everything we say and do tells the world “what Christmas is really all about.” Because if we don’t do it, who will?
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