How have we managed to transform the Christmas season from an awe-filled consideration of "O Holy Night" into an awful "O holy nightmare"? Isn''t it time we rediscovered the real Christ of Christmas, the Christ who came (as that old revival saying put it) not to "see through you," but to "see you through"?

"Be prepared." Jesus said it, Paul emphasized it, Matthew reiterated it, and eventually even the Boy Scouts picked it up as their own mantra. The season of Advent begins today with its own admonition for Christians to "be prepared." But for what are we called to be prepared ? Are we preparing our hearts and spirits to receive the coming of the Christ child into the world - or are we preparing for a final month of frenzied shopping, holiday headaches and heartburn, economic homicide (tha…