originally published in the Catholic Review, December 22, 2005

The folks at Coca- Cola are fiddling around with Christmas once again. The legend is that in the 1930s Coke developed a Christmas ad campaign that included a distinctly bright red that was to be used for both Coke packaging and Santa’s suit. It was hoped to influence consumers into making an association between bright red and Coke and Santa. This season, Coke is at it again. The Coke holiday packaging announces three modest words that the soft drink manufacturer would like you to associate with this holiday season and their product. They are simple little words, each evolving after the other with just the slightest change of a letter. They are: Give. Live. Love. Could Coke be onto something here? Before we might dismiss it as a slick ad campaign, let us carefully consider each word, taking them in reverse order.

Love. This is certainly a powerful word with which to begin.

The Gospel of John instructs us that “ God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” We can only hope to begin to understand
that the Love of God is an overwhelming source of generosity. Love is the greatest gift ever offered.

Live. It seems that this is the omnipresent theme of much of today’s advertising. Buy this car and have a great life driving it around. A credit card company enthuses about “ my life, my card.”

Yet, how we are “ to live” is also very much the content of our faith as well. We believe that Jesus came so that we might have life and live it in abundance. Again, our imaginations can only discern hints to the boundlessness of God’s generosity. The Good Shepherd proclaims that he knows those for whom he provides and protects. Those who seek this life are asked to live their lives in God’s love and live their lives according towards God’s designs. To seek life as well as to seek love, we must also seek God.

Give. Presently, this may very well be the most problematic of the Coke Christmas challenge. This is a hurried-up world with multi- tasked demands; it is easy to feel as if our tanks are empty. Local non- profits are concerned as usual benefactors might be experiencing “charitable fatigue” from international tsunami campaigns as well as national hurricane disaster relief.

Yet, for those of us who claim to be followers of Christ, we attempt to follow the model of One who believed that there was no greater gift or love that that to offer up one’s life for others. To give demands that we go beyond ourselves for others.

This never seems to actually be as easy as one might think and usually requires that we utilize the word “
sacrifice” in our description of such acts. In the midst of our Christmas preparations, what a challenge it is to find just the “ right gift” for a love one.

The right gift often involves much thought, preparation and effort on our parts. Nonetheless, we of faith understand that sacrifice, especially the sacrifice of Jesus, is what we have come to recognize is what
eternal life is all about.

Love. Live. Give.

Coke has offered this simple little message for the holidays. Yet, those of us who are Catholic Christians know that the holidays celebrate the birth of the Son of God who by his words and by his example taught us how
to love, how to live and how to give. This Christmas, let us remember that it is Christ who is the real thing.