Fear Not! Linus and his blanket
When Charlie Brown, the bald child with no self confidence and a “why so glum, chum?” look on his face, regrets bringing the droopy Christmas tree he’s secured for the school Christmas play, he laments not knowing the true meaning of Christmas and he asks why he can’t seem to figure it out for himself?
Linus, his best friend, attached to a blue blanket that might as well be his third arm, steps up to answer. The tiny philosopher of the Peanuts universe who literally has a security blanket and a sucked thumb to bring him comfort, there is no Charlie Brown without his intellectual counterpart and best friend. Linus sure seems insecure, but he’s actually the most self-confident of all the Peanuts characters. He knows who he is, and he knows what he needs. Linus thinks big thoughts, is unafraid to carry his blue blanket around, and cares not that people think he’s a baby because he sucks his thumb.
And so he comes to the center of the stage when Charlie Brown begins to mope and tells the Christmas story. The one that actually captures what Christmas is all about: the angels, shepherds, and a child in a manger.
It’s when Linus says “Fear not!” while telling the story that we get a profound, yet subtle moment.
Linus drops his blue blanket. A blanket he’s never without, never not holding, a blanket for which he’s mocked and criticized…his beloved blanket that keeps him safe, warm, comfortable. And as he says the words “Fear not!” he drops the blanket. Almost as if he’s saying those words to himself, as well as the audience and his best friend, Charlie Brown, who wants to learn the true meaning of Christmas.
If the words of the angel to not fear can detach a child from his beloved security blanket, what could those words do for us?
Could the angels bringing good tidings of the Christ Child also release us from the fears, worries, anxieties, stresses, and concerns of this life and point to the thrilling hope of the Messiah coming into the world?
One could holy hope…
This weekend, we brought Rose & Clare to meet Santa, and moments before we walked up to meet jolly ole St. Nick, Rose (4 years old) got a little scared. So I crouched down beside her and asked her why she was nervous.
“I don’t want to go see him alone.”
Easy solution here! I can go up there with her. And that’s precisely what we did.
When we articulate our fear, and know there’s something available to assuage that fear, we can overcome it.
Sometimes we allow our fears and worries to overtake us, forgetting that from time to time, there’s an easy solution (and sometimes a clear command from an angel) staring us right in the face.
Fear not! Drop the blue blankets. Christ the Child is born.
Today in Church History
Pope Celestine V resigned in 1294.
Funnily enough, Pope Benedict XVI visited his grave a few years before he himself resigned the pontificate. A foreshadowing moment many completely missed until that fateful day in 2013…
The Council of Trent began in 1545 ,marking an 18 year process of clarifying Church teaching in the face of the Protestant Reformation. A significant day to be sure.
Today’s Guests
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Mrs. Torres Creates offers fun Catholic items like Saint playing cards, original artwork, and stickers. Use code: MCGRADY20