By Rev DANIEL A. LORD S.J.
Beyond all else Christmas means children.
And beyond all children Christmas means especially one Child.
Even the sad pagans of a modern day, who have rudely excluded that Divine Child from Christmas, have, because of Him, kept the day sacred to children.
Where the Christ Child is loved for Himself and is seen in the little children, who are beautifully like Him, Christmas is the day, beyond all other days, when love moves over the earth with lighted tapers, and the virtues of childhood make young once more a weary, aging humanity.
Even where the Christ Child is forgotten or ignored, His little ones for a single day waken in human hearts a new tenderness and unselfish affection. And the innocence of childhood, its unquenchable faith in the goodness of others, curve into smiles even the cynical lips that have drunk deep of sin…