I’m posting this a day early, Christmas Eve being tomorrow. But while I’m saying what is patently obvious, I’ll trust that you, good reader, have taken note of the fact that the Codex doesn’t get updated quite as regularly as was once the case. Life, it seems, only gets busier and more full; this is certainly true of the Christmas season, which brings us back to these greetings being a day early. Starting tomorrow, there will be no time — none at all — to spend on the Codex, and in fact it may be several days until I post much here in the way of updates.

But in a way, it’s kind of fitting to meditate on the meaning of Christmas beneath an “ugly sweater”-themed video, which you’ve hopefully enjoyed and laughed at.

If there’s any of the Eight Virtues that is most directly reflected in the event that gave us Christmas, it is Humility. The mythologies of any number of other historical cultures are replete with stories of the gods coming to dwell amongst human beings, often in ways that are destructive or usurious. But Christmas is not quite the same as any of those; Christmas is not another story of a god coming to merely dwell among humans…but as a human. And not in the sense of putting on a guise, but in the sense of actually becoming fully, entirely human. That’s a profoundly humbling step to take; Existence Itself — the author of Creation — humbles Himself to be born as all human beings are, taking on all of our frailties, vulnerabilities, and pains. Pace the late Robin Williams in Aladdin: “Phenomenal cosmic power! Itty-bitty living space.”

Humility is a difficult Virtue to define, as I’ve discovered in my own previous attempts to do just that. But I was stuck the other night by a strange reflection after re-watching this video: in a way, the tradition of donning an “ugly sweater” at Christmas can actually be a very profound exercise in Humility. I’ve previously discussed the distinction between humility and humiliation, but there is a very delicate middle ground between the two, which is the concept of self-abasement. As is the case with Humility itself, this is a difficult practice to do well; it can easily verge into either self-aggrandizement or self-destruction. The key, I submit, is to be able to approach the concept with joy, rather than with pride or sorrow. Humility is in being able to accept one’s being lowered, even if only by a little, in a way that is nevertheless mirthful…and is that not, in some sense, what the “ugly Christmas sweater” does to us? It’s very much meant in fun, and we accept the ridiculousness of it — and even the good-natured teasing that can attend it — at our own expense, but not an expense that brings sorrow. And at the same time, it’s difficult to be self-aggrandizing when one looks…well…just a bit ridiculous.

So that’s the thought I wish to leave you with for Christmas, and possibly for 2024: embrace the little opportunities for joyful self-abasement as they come, and find in them that most elusive of Virtues, Humility. For my part, I wish you all the blessings and fruits of the Christmas season, reflected as they hopefully are in the love and closeness of family and friends.