I was buying a birthday present recently at a major department store, and as I carried my small gift home I noticed a message printed in elegant script on the inside rims of the bag. "Ah, Christmas," I thought.

I pushed down the tissue paper and read, "Who says money can't buy happiness?" That was the message the Macy's department stores wanted me to ponder. Of course I understood their logic --- I was supposed to answer "No one! Money can indeed buy happiness; look, I just bought some!"

The blatant materialism was obvious, yet I focused on the question itself and on the word "who?" What if underneath the advertising platitude there was a real question that was fundamental to our contemporary society? Have we forgotten "who" said money can't buy happiness, or is secular society asking those of us who remember to remind… them?

So much for the shopping bag; now on to college football. On Nov. 30, the University of Notre Dame fired its first African-American head football coach, Tyrone Willingham, after just three years of his six-year contract, even though Notre Dame's own publicity noted that "Willingham became the only first-year coach in Notre Dame history to win 10 games in his initial campaign."

All my research indicates that Willingham was loved, truly respected and had worked hard to turn out young men of both good character and scholarship from Notre Dame's football program. Although they had won a number of games, the school was not reaching the elite and lucrative football status its trustees wanted to recapture.

The explosion of negative reaction to the firing around the country reminded me of the shopping bag's question. You see, most reports and commentaries seemed to be asking the same question, "Does money buy happiness?", and fans as well as journalists showed their disappointment that those they expected to know the answer to the question had forgotten it. I don't normally follow sports stories, but this turned into a debate about ethics and about what it should mean to bear religious witness in a secular world.

"The unique quality of which Notre Dame has been so proud of for so many years --- that it doesn't do things the way the typical 'football factory' does --- became a lot less visible around 1:15 ET Tuesday afternoon," was the feeling at ESPN. "The timing of Willingham's ouster broke with recent Notre Dame practice that even gave struggling coaches … five seasons to prove themselves," was the commentary from Sports Illustrated, which adding this quote from Notre Dame athletic director Kevin White: "If it says anything, it's an underscore of the notion that football is very important at Notre Dame and the competitive expectations are not downwardly negotiable."

An MSNBC columnist put it this way: "Notre Dame has long postured as the class act of big-time, collegiate football, a program with both academic and moral underpinnings. But while it certainly has the legacy, the modern incarnation of its football program is every bit as crass as any other. The timing of the dismissal of Willingham appears completely cynical." The reports seemed unanimous --- this was an unfair firing, and it was doubly disappointing because Notre Dame, "Our Lady's" school, was not supposed to be ruled by greed and cut-throat competition.

A USA Today columnist expressed her disappointment thusly: "…because this is Notre Dame, hyperventilate we must. We in the media seem duty-bound to speak of tradition and honor and trust and loyalty and country and Mom and apple pie, when, of course, what we are really talking about is a football factory that wants to win more games and make more money by going to a big BCS bowl, the kind that hands out up to $16 million a team."

It was about money, everyone knew it was about money, and everyone also expected Notre Dame to remember, and perhaps remind the rest of us that you cannot buy happiness with money. Whether at Christmas or at any time, Christians are meant to set an example that turns the world's values upside down. An institution like Notre Dame is supposed to remember its Savior, who came as a poor child and who consistently defied the materialism and social order of his age. People around the country were asking, does not Notre Dame stand for values that are not tied to dollar signs, but to something deeper, to something called the Gospel?

Notre Dame's financially motivated firing rightly troubled the university's Faculty Senate, which issued a resolution expressing its concern over the decision to terminate the contract of football coach Tyrone Willingham. "The Senate is particularly troubled by the signal that his firing sends regarding the role that intercollegiate athletics plays in the life of this University…. The Senate extends its appreciation to Coach Willingham for his commitment to exemplary academic standards and for the professional integrity he brought to the football program and the University."

In an interview with the South Bend Tribune, the Faculty Board on Athletics also acknowledged "There are a number of concerns…. There is a concern about what this decision teaches student-athletes and students in general about ethical dealings…."

The same paper reported (Dec. 9) Notre Dame administrator Chandra Johnson's comment that "…after Coach Willingham was dismissed, I found myself asking God who Notre Dame was." In her office were t-shirts students were distributing with the following message: "It's bigger than football. It's about losing..." "1. IntegriTY. 2. A role model. 3. An educator. 4. Morals. 5. Equality. 6. Visibility. Our record now: 0-6."

Finally, ending his previous silence on the issue, Holy Cross Father Edward Malloy, the outgoing president of Notre Dame explained, "All the good coaches who get fired will get another job, in college or pro," Malloy said. "Their future is not at risk, but what happens in the transition is that the institutions get tarnished in ways that I think in the long run we pay a huge price."

As this Notre Dame story makes clear, the pull of a materialistic world which wants us to think happiness can indeed be bought is difficult to resist. It also shows, as American society knows, there is something wrong with the $$ = happiness formula. The sustained protests against Willingham's firing were a cry of disappointment aimed at us, Catholics, asking us to stand up to the pressures of material "success," clamoring to us to visibly give witness to the ethical values that are the gift of the Catholic tradition.

So my answer to the shopping bag's question of "Who says money can't buy happiness?" is… almost every wise and loving human person, and most especially a Child that we await this Christmas, who came to tell us, there is something more to this life. This Christmas the presents I am giving will be cards that say, "I have made a contribution in your name to the Oratorio Maria Auxiliadora Salesian Mission School in the Dominican Republic." I think this is the kind of happiness Macy's will never know, at least not since "Miracle on 34th Street."

Donations for the Oratorio Maria Auxiliadora Salesian Mission School, serving the poorest children, can be made to: Sister Dolores Lanza, FMA, Apartado 144, Barahona, Dominican Republic. (Postage is 80 cents.)

Cecilia González-Andrieu writes from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley.