As a solemn reminder of Christ's birth, Christmas has a "wondrous effect" that even the season's over-commercialization cannot repress.
"Somehow in the magic of this season, there is less of hate and more of love," President Gordon B. Hinckley of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said Sunday during the First Presidency's Christmas Devotional on Temple Square."There is less of greed and more of giving, there is less of indifference and more of gratitude," President Hinckley said. "If only for a brief season, we are inclined to lay aside our selfishness and reach out to help others."
Noting this was his first Christmas Devotional as church president, President Hinckley thanked church members for their confidence and prayers since he was sustained last April. He added, "I know that I am not the head of this church. The Lord Jesus Christ is its head. He is its living head."
He said as president of the church, his mission, responsibility and greatest honor "comes in bearing solemn testimony of his living reality."
Christmas is much larger than the story of the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, President Hinckley said. "It is the very core of the entire plan drawn and adopted for the salvation of the sons and daughters of God of all generations."
Christmas has become "disgracefully over-commercialized," President Hinckley said. "But even with all of that, there still enters in our lives a sweet and wonderful feeling at this glad season." Joy has come to the world because the Savior has come to the world, he said.
A holiday tradition, the First Presidency's Christmas Devotional brought several thousand church members to the Tabernacle on Temple Square in downtown Salt Lake City, while thousands of others viewed the event on a worldwide television broadcast.
President Thomas S. Monson, first counselor in the First Presidency, said theChristmas spirit flourishes through giving, not getting. Instead of asking someone, "What did you get for Christmas?" President Monson suggested asking, "What did you give for Christmas?"
"To catch the real meaning of the spirit of Christmas, we need only drop the last syllable, and it becomes the spirit of Christ," President Monson said.
By following Christ's example, church members have an opportunity to bless the lives of others, President Monson said. "Our opportunities are indeed limitless, but they are also perishable. There are hearts to gladden. There are kind words to say. There are gifts to be given. There are deeds to be done. There are souls to be saved."
In his remarks, President James E. Faust, second counselor in the First Presidency, spoke about Christmas experiences away from home and loved ones.
"Each Christmas when I was in the military in World War II, I wondered when the terrible suffering and agony of war would end and we could all go home. And as we sang `Peace on Earth, good will to all men,' I wondered if the Germans and Japanese who were Christians were also singing this familiar refrain with the same yearnings in their hearts."
He recounted a story told by Kenneth J. Brown in the Deseret News' 1983 "Christmas I Remember Best." Brown, a Marine serving in Nagasaki at the end of the war, wrote about his encounter with Japanese Christians who had been imprisoned for their beliefs. On Christmas Eve, the Japanese gave a concert of Christmas hymns for the Marines.