What About the Tree?

For many people, Christmas ends on Christmas day, so over the ensuing few days, amidst the various after-Christmas sales, the trees are unceremoniously taken down and dragged out to the curb.

But for those of us who do have a sense of Christmas extending beyond December 25th, the question still remains: When does Christmas season actually end? When should we take down not only our tree, but also other seasonal items such as nativity sets?

Traditionally, Christmas season is twelve days (like the song), which would take us to January 6th, the traditional date for celebrating the Epiphany, when the wise men brought gifts to the child Jesus. Now Epiphany is only approximately 12 days after Christmas, as it falls on the second Sunday after Christmas. This year, however, the second Sunday after Christmas does happen to fall exactly on January 6th.

But while Epiphany is an important feast within the context of the Christmas season, it doesn’t bring about the end of the Christmas season. The Christmas season ends on the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, at which point “Ordinary Time” begins. The Sunday after the Baptism of the Lord is thus the second Sunday of Ordinary Time.

The Baptism of the Lord usually falls on the Sunday after Epiphany, which this year will be January 13th.

Lastly, prior to the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), the Christmas season extended all the way to February 2nd, the feast of the Presentation of the Lord (aka Purification of Our Lady or Candlemas), based on Luke 2:22-38. While that is no longer the case, there is still something of a Christmas “flavor” to the early weeks of Ordinary Time leading up to the Presentation of the Lord.

But what does all that have to do with taking down my tree? And besides, if I wait too long to take it down, the garbage trucks won’t take it!

Well, rest assured there are no “rules” on all this. My recommendation, based on the liturgical season, is to keep Christmas decorations up till the Baptism of the Lord (January 13th). If that seems a little extreme for your household, I’d counsel at least waiting till after Epiphany (January 6th). That’s especially true for nativity sets that include the three wise men.

And after all, why cut short “the most wonderful time of the year”?

Christmas Proclamation

The Twenty-fifth Day of December,

when ages beyond number had run their course from the creation of the world,

when God in the beginning created heaven and earth, and formed man in his own likeness;

when century upon century had passed since the Almighty set his bow in the clouds after the Great Flood, as a sign of covenant and peace;

in the twenty-first century since Abraham, our father in faith, came out of Ur of the Chaldees;

in the thirteenth century since the People of Israel were led by Moses in the Exodus from Egypt;

around the thousandth year since David was anointed King;

in the sixty-fifth week of the prophecy of Daniel;

in the one hundred and ninety-fourth Olympiad;

in the year seven hundred and fifty-two since the foundation of the City of Rome;

in the forty-second year of the reign of Caesar Octavian Augustus, the whole world being at peace,

JESUS CHRIST, eternal God and Son of the eternal Father, desiring to consecrate the world by his most loving presence, was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and when nine months had passed since his conception, was born of the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem of Judah, and was made man:

The Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ according to the flesh.

Preparing for Mary’s Visit

Today’s Gospel, the first part of the event commonly known as the “Visitation” (Lk. 1:39-45), is very familiar to most Catholics. It’s read a few times during the year at Mass, and of course it’s one of the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary.

Sometimes we hear a passage over and over again, and it can be a challenge to open our minds and hearts to allow the Holy Spirit to give us new insights.

In hearing this Gospel anew today, I was struck by how much we should be devoted to our Blessed Mother, especially on Christmas.

When Elizabeth greets Mary, John the Baptist leaps for joy in his mother’s womb at the sound of Mary’s voice (vv. 41, 44). After all, Mary has brought Jesus to him! (The best baby shower gift of all time!) But there’s more.

All Scripture is inspired by the Holy Spirit. Even more, Scripture says that Elizabeth was “filled with the Holy Spirit” when she cried out: “Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb . . .” (vv. 41-42). When we turn to Our Lady, when we pray the “Hail Mary,” we are simply making our own the doubly inspired words of Elizabeth.

Okay, but enough already, right? Perhaps we’re still a little hesitant or unsure about turning to Mary. But what were the next words out of Elizabeth’s mouth? She said, “And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” Instead of obsessing over whether she should make such a fuss about Mary, she does pretty much the opposite: She marvels at the great honor bestowed upon her that the Blessed Virgin Mary would actually come to her.

Mary wants to come to each one of us this Christmas, as the definitive bearer of our long-awaited Savior. Let us run to greet her, and leap for joy in the presence of the Gift she has brought to the world–the Gift that, as the saying goes, is the “reason for the season.”

The Infancy Narratives

In light of some of the controversy surrounding recent media coverage of the Pope’s new book on the infancy narratives (Matthew 1-2 and Luke 1-2), I thought it would be good to offer our readers (at least those who don’t have the time to read the Pope’s book!) a good summary of the Church’s teaching as we prepare to celebrate the Birth of Jesus in the coming days. To that end, check out this tract, published by Catholics United for the Faith.

In short, some secular commentators have taken statements from the book out of context, suggesting that the Pope does not assert the historicity of the biblical accounts of Jesus’ birth. That surely is not the Holy Father’s view.  In fact, Pope Benedict XVI concludes his reflections as follows: “The two chapters of  Matthew’s Gospel devoted to the infancy narratives are not a meditation  presented under the guise of stories, but the converse: Matthew is  recounting real history, theologically thought through and interpreted,  and thus he helps us to understand the mystery of Jesus more deeply” (p. 119).

Commandments for Advent

We are so blessed here in the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas to have such a knowledgable and faithful man as Michael Podrebarac heading our liturgy office. He has been instrumental in compiling our liturgy guide for our archdiocesan “Faith Initiative,” and he also has a series of videos on the “Mystery of Faith” at the website of The Leaven. Michael also has a wonderful sense of humor, and I think it comes through in the following “Ten Commandments” from the liturgy guide for December, which in a light-hearted way most ably summarizes how we should approach the beautiful season of Advent.

“Ten Commandments on How to Properly Celebrate the Season Advent” by Michael Podrebarac

I. Advent is a proper season unto itself. Thou shalt have no other seasons before it. Advent is a season by which we prepare for the celebration of the birth of Jesus at Christmas. It is also a season during which we recall his promise to return to us again in glory. The Christmas season is itself a beautiful time of celebration, and each day, as we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we pray “thy kingdom come” in anticipation of the Lord’s return. Keeping the season of Advent as a “period of devout and expectant delight” (The Roman Missal) means holding back from the fullness of Christmas festivity while at the same time sharing peace, joy, and love with others as we prepare for the festive days to come as well as share in the many activities associated with the “holiday” season.

Joy to the World!

“Dearly beloved, today our Savior is born; let us rejoice. Sadness should have no place on the birthday of life. The fear of death has been swallowed up; life brings us joy with the promise of eternal happiness.

“No one is shut out from this joy; all share the same reason for rejoicing. Our Lord, victor over sin and death, finding no man free from sin, came to free us all. Let the saint rejoice as he sees the palm of victory at hand. Let the sinner be glad as he receives the offer of forgiveness. Let the pagan take courage as he is summoned to life.

“In the fullness of time, chosen in the unfathomable depths of God’s wisdom, the Son of God took for Himself our common humanity in order to reconcile it with its Creator. He came to overthrow the devil, the origin of death, in that very nature by which he had overthrown mankind.

“And so at the birth of Our Lord the angels sing in joy: Glory to God in the highest, and they proclaim peace to His people on earth as they see the heavenly Jerusalem being built from all the nations of the world. When the angels on high are so exultant at this marvelous work of God’s goodness, what joy should it not bring to the lowly hearts of men?”

–Pope St. Leo the Great (d. 461)

The Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas wishes everyone a most blessed Christmas filled with the immense joy that made the angels sing.

Christmas Eve

When you think about it, doesn’t “Christmas Eve” sound like an apt title for the Blessed Virgin Mary? After all, as the Fathers of the Church taught, she is the “New Eve,” the mother of all who are alive in Christ (cf. Gen. 3:20; Rev. 12:17).

As Christmas day rapidly approaches, I thought our readers would appreciate a snippet of a sermon by St. Augustine, which is the reading for tomorrow’s Office of Readings (matins) in the Church’s liturgy:

“Awake, mankind! For your sake God has become man. Awake you who sleep, rise up from the dead, and Christ will enlighten you. I tell you again: for your sake, God became man. . . .

“Let us then joyfully celebrate the coming of our salvation and redemption. Let us celebrate the festive day on which he who is the great and eternal day came from the great and endless day of eternity into our own short day of time.”

Come Lord Jesus, do not delay; give new courage to Your people who trust in Your love. By Your coming, raise us to the joy of Your kingdom, where You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Christmas, Don’t Be Early

As a child I really liked the Chipmunks’ Christmas album, including the classic “Christmas Don’t Be Late.” What little kid isn’t eager for Christmas day to finally get here?

However, as Christmas has become more of a secular holiday than a religious celebration in the minds of many, some of the liturgical and theological nuance of the feast has become obscured. In particular, we don’t know exactly what to do with Advent anymore. Our society doesn’t fully appreciate the season as one of joyful anticipation, of vigilant expectation, of penance and spiritual renewal, of recalling Christ’s first and second coming. Heck, the Jews had to wait thousands of years for the first Christmas, but we can’t even wait four weeks!

Where I see this most acutely is in the way we celebrate with Christmas lights, parties, and carols throughout all of Advent, as though it were already the “Christmas season.” In fact, the pc way of greeting people this time of year is by saying “Season’s Greetings.” I’m all for lights, parties, and carols, but not if they take away from the actual celebration of Christmas. By the time Christmas finally rolls around, we’ve had our fill of all these things.

I pray that isn’t the case for us!

In reality, Christmas season only begins on Christmas!  That’s why we have songs like “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” Like Easter, Christmas is too important of a feast to celebrate on one day, so it has its own octave (week-long celebration) and season. Yet, once we open our gifts on Christmas, we’re all partied out. We take our trees to the curb on the second day of Christmas, and then we begin the “pseudo-Second Advent” of preparing for New Year’s Day and bowl games.

Everyone celebrates Christmas differently, and that’s wonderful. But I invite all of us to see this present time of Advent as more of a time of preparation, as we wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

And when Christmas finally arrives, let the celebration really begin–in our hearts, in our homes, and in our parishes and neighborhoods!

Prepare for a Merry Christmas

Ten days til Christmas. Are you ready? If you’re like me, you probably still have cookies to bake, presents to wrap (or buy), a menu to plan, a house to clean (or suitcases to pack)… and on and on. The parents I talk to these days are buried under their fa la la la lists. At the risk of adding one more thing to your list I am going to, well, suggest you add one more thing to your list. Don’t worry, this thing is free, and it just might be the most valuable thing you do to ensure a merry Christmas.

Often, after all the material and even spiritual preparations we do during Advent to make the season bright, we still end up having arguments, blow ups or melt downs when the big day comes. Since they tend to happen every year, we may be tempted to just accept them as “just how things are”, or we may become discouraged and upset by them every time, as if we didn’t see them coming. Instead of either of these responses, I’d like to suggest a third: foresight.

Don’t Let the Grinches Steal This Christmas

I have to admit that my favorite Christmas movie, far and away, is It’s a Wonderful Life. However, I’d have to say that How the Grinch Stole Christmas! is in my top three. I’m not talking about the more recent Jim Carrey version, but the older, animated version that has been a Christmas-time favorite for decades.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas! is truly an endearing story—all the more so for me as my daughter Abigail Rose has always reminded my wife and me of little Cindy Lou Who.

But is the story real? In other words, are there really any Grinches in the world? Is there anyone so foolish as to want to destroy Christmas?

On one level, the Grinch is in each one of us, just as each of us shares in the burden of Frodo’s ring, to borrow from another classic, The Lord of the Rings. The sheer weight of human brokenness and sin impels us at times to perversely reject what is good. It all started in a garden, where our first parents rejected paradise.

For that reason, Christmas is for everybody. We all need good news. We all need divine grace to heal the “Grinch” in us, so that we may be filled anew with awe and wonder as we celebrate the birth of the Christ child.

In another sense, there are still Grinches around today, but they’ve largely changed their approach since the day the first Grinch graced the pages of children’s literature. We might recall that the original Grinch attacked Christmas by taking away all the external decorations and gifts from the Whos of Whoville. What the Grinch didn’t realize was that the spirit of Christmas would continue to live on in the hearts of the people.

Today’s Grinches don’t want to take away the externals, but rather to magnify them. They want to embellish the commercial aspect of the holiday. They may not explicitly deny the “spirit” or “true meaning” of Christmas, but they render it irrelevant amidst the shopping frenzy and the mantra “Season’s Greetings!”.

Rather than use the liturgical season of Advent to mark the time of preparation for Christmas, we’re now taught to diligently keep track of the number of shopping days until the blessed event. Instead of celebrating the season of Christmas between December 25th and the feast of the Epiphany (i.e., the visit of the Magi—January 8th this year), today’s Grinches see this time as one for returning gifts, flocking to after-Christmas sales, taking down Christmas decorations, and viewing approximately 35 bowl games (but who’s counting).

These Grinches, of course, are those who want to exploit Christmas, not celebrate it.

While the commercialization of Christmas in most instances is simply motivated by economic gain, there unfortunately have arisen pseudo-philosophies–like that reflected by the Ayn Rand Institute–that actually propose a Christmas without Christ. In other words, they’re offering us the shell without the pearl of great price.