It was one of those charming English eccentricities that made living in England maddening and delightful--like their national game lasting for four days, and after twenty five years in the damp land I still didn't understand it, or the way all their comedians think it's funny to dress up like women--and it is actually quite funny.
Well I sympathize with that lover of Christmas because suddenly it is Epiphany and the Baptism of Christ and the Christmas tree is down and it's Ordinary Time tomorrow and it's a Monday and it's business as usual. Once again I am grieving for Christmas. What I dislike about the Christmas Season is that it is too short and there is just too much liturgical richness crammed into it. It's like Christmas fruitcake--too much of it and too much goodness all mixed together.
Here's what I mean: especially this year with Christmas on a Sunday I feel liturgically cheated. We had Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and the Sunday after Christmas, but there was so much to celebrate and so much to contemplate. There was St Stephen's Day, the St John--both of them chock full of new angles on the mystery of the Incarnation. Then there was the Feast of the Holy Innocents, and the Holy Family and the Mother of God. Then Epiphany (can't keep in on the proper day so it was transferred) and that bumped the Baptism of Christ from a Sunday too.
So, this morning I am missing Christmas. The celebration of the mystery of the Incarnation seems to have come and gone, and I'm resolved to keep Christmas alive, like the guy in Wiltshire. I'm not going to keep the decorations up and eat turkey every day. Instead, I am resolved to live the mystery of the incarnation in a fuller and richer way within the mystery of liturgical time. This is one of the reasons for the Epiphany proclamation--to be remind that within the mystery of time the mystery of the incarnation became true.
The eternal stepped into time, and so time is forever sanctified, and it is by conforming our lives more and more to the rhythm of time that time and therefore our lives (for what is our life but a sequence of moments in time?) are consecrated and our conformity to Christ is furthered.
So, as a New Year's resolution, why not endeavor with me to this year more liturgically? Celebrate the feasts and seasons and so draw nearer in time to the timeless.
Fr. Dwight: Over the past few months I've made it a habit to do a Facebook post wishing everyone a happy feast day. Not every day, but most days. I've noticed two things: 1) There really ARE a lot of feast days, and 2) I feel a bit uncomfortable at times, wondering if people think I'm a religious fanatic. Isn't that sad? We are so secular that mentioning "too many" religious holidays seems outlandish! Oh well, that's why I do it. Not to be holier than everyone else but just to remind my fellow Catholics that we have a lot to celebrate. I think it's too bad that we, as a Church, don't actually celebrate more!
ReplyDeleteIf you have a spare hour or so, this film will reignite the atmosphere nicely Father. An american online friend, a writer (proddy, but sound as a pound), directed me to it(it to me?). The whole film is on youtube.
ReplyDeleteHere's the link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLXrdeoenJ8
There's lot's to be gleamed from it.......spiritually.
Anyway, you might like it.
I am a priest and, frankly, I am cheered each year when I see all the Christmas decorations come down in the church. I always feel better when I see the "church ladies" and the maintenance man throwing all those poinsettias into the dumpter. I thrill to the sight of the Christmas trees in the sanctuary being removed. I was very pleased that Christmas came on a Sunday this year. I am already in anticipatory depression knowing that next Christmas will be on a Tuesday. I have been on my own in parishes for over 20 years of my 33 years in the priesthood. I associate Christmas with being very tired with the added burden of trying not to be a Scrooge or, at least, not to let it show too much.(Can I say "Bah Humbug" here... just this once? Please.)Don't get me wrong. I am quite happy to celebrate the Birth of the Lord Jesus every year and every day, but I would just prefer to do it in a more sober manner in prayer and silence. Now, I need to go over to the church and contemplate the move to Ordinary Time, the two funerals I have this week, and God's love and mercy.
ReplyDeleteEtienne.
ReplyDeleteI am going to pray that God sends you an Angel to help you.
Have you ever read the books of Father Ralph Pfau? He is an inspiration to thousands of priests and lay people.
Howdy Fr. L
ReplyDeleteI endorse the sentiment of the article, but the penultimate sentence seems to be deprived of a verb.
Gregg the Obscure
"Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim, who did not die, he was a second father. He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world. Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms. His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him.
ReplyDelete"He had no further intercourse with Spirits, but lived upon the Total Abstinence Principle, ever afterwards; and it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God Bless Us, Every One!"
Etienne, we move around alot too and seem totally alone for Christmas, or if we go to visit family, we get exhausted by it. This year we befriended our priest to come over before the hubub and once my child is over the flu, will have him after. Forgive us if we abandoned you all these Christmasses! We are supposed to be family after all.
ReplyDeleteand Umm, my tree is still up - kinda tired to take it down. The light on the nativity outside blew out all on it's own last night as if to tell me to get with the times :)If only the kids were old enough to take it down without busting the lights or breaking the ornaments.
I'd never thought of it as "grieving" before. But it fits.
ReplyDelete