A Partridge in a pear tree...

The season of Christmas is twelve days.  Therefore we have the Christmas carol "The Twelve Days of Christmas."  Over the course of the season of Christmas, I will attempt to elaborate on the spiritual significance as represented by these days.  The song "The Twelve Days of Christmas" was written in England and is a memory device to aid school-aged children in learning the tenants of faith as outlined by the catechism. It is important that we realize that the true love who gives the gifts is not a suitor, but rather a reference to God, who is the giver of every good and perfect gift.

On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me a partridge in a pear tree.  The partridge in the pear tree represents Jesus.  As the Nicene Creed tells us.  We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten not made of one being with the Father,  Through him all things were made.  Another example of these lines from the Nicene Creed can be summarized in the Gospel of St. John chapter 1:  In the beginning was the word, and the word was God and the word was with God.

I think that John 3:16-17 sums up our relationship with the partridge in the pear tree.  "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have everlasting life.  Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him."  Through Our Lord Jesus Christ, God our true love has given us both the gifts of adoption into the holy family of God and salvation from our sins, the perils of this world and from ourselves.  The proper thing to do when we receive gifts is to say thank you and to share the gift with others.  "On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me a partridge in a pear tree."

Peace,
Karsten