The Comites Christi

The days after Christmas honor the Comites Christi, the companions of Christ. They are honored with feast days following Christmas, especially Stephen and the Holy Innocents. But those are particulars, and we want the category.  There is no better introduction to the Comites Christi than the words of St. Augustine: 

Consider what is said to you: Love God. If you say to me: Show me whom I am to love, what shall I say if not what Saint John says: No one has ever seen God! But in case you should think that you are completely cut off from the sight of God, he says: God is love, and he who remains in love remains in God. Love your neighbor, then, and see within yourself the power by which you love your neighbor; there you will see God, as far as you are able. 

Begin, then, to love your neighbor. Break your bread to feed the hungry, and bring into your home the homeless poor; if you see someone naked, clothe him, and do not look down on your own flesh and blood. 

What will you gain by doing this? Your light will then burst forth like the dawn. Your light is your God; he is your dawn, for he will come to you when the night of time is over. He does not rise or set but remains for ever. 

In loving and caring for your neighbor you are on a journey. Where are you traveling if not to the Lord God, to him whom we should love with our whole heart, our whole soul, our whole mind? We have not yet reached his presence, but we have our neighbor at our side. Support, then, this companion of your pilgrimage if you want to come into the presence of the one with whom you desire to remain for ever.

Augustine starts with hospitality, which is universally supposed to be the "spirit of the Christmas season."  That spirit isn't (we all say) limited to the 25 days of December, or the 12 days of Christmas.  It is, as Augustine says, a journey.  Scrooge pledged to honor Christmas in his heart all the year 'round, and the narrator says he was as good as his word, and better. And us?

Protestants would call this the "clouds of witness," trying to distinguish themselves from the RC "saints."  More and more I see the wisdom of saints and even images.  The Reformation was rebelling against a culture dominated by those things; but now we are bereft of them, even among Protestant religious leaders and people we know (always the most powerful witness).  Church as a "pillar of society" was waning even in my childhood.  Finding reasons, or even examples, to love your neighbor (something the world has never really taught, and which the current Administration would like to actively eliminate), has never been easy.  Christmastide is a good time to meditate on how to do it on your own; or just be a good example to others.  After all, Christianity didn't start with the approval of the State and society.  I'm not sure it's a bad thing that Christianity looks to be returning to that state.