Each Advent, exhortations come from Christian pulpits to “slow down.” Just when every other force and fury around us is screaming, “hurry up!” the Church is out there being its counter-cultural self, ever the “sign of contradiction” in the world. And with good reason. Our message is one of liberation, freedom from what ties us down and suppresses our true humanity. No surprise then to hear the call: Take back Advent and stop rushing Christmas!
It’s always nice to see the sparkling lights popping up through our darkest winter nights. Pagan societies were the first to start the practice, for they had no “light” or “fire” other than what they could conjure up themselves. Christians, on the other hand, believe it is the light that comes to us — a gift, not a product or a spell we must conjure.
No law says the Christmas tree must go up the day after Thanksgiving. Chances are any living pine or spruce that goes up now is a goner by Christmas, the last bit of sap in its sagging arms having parched in the sauna-like dryness of domestic heat.
Even if the tree can wait, shopping hardly stands a chance. According to a fresh poll from “Think Finance,” 45 percent of Americans would rather “skip Christmas.” Doubtless that “Christmas” here means the commerce of Christmas, an expression of stress and strain from the time and financial burdens. To manage this, some families have opted for a simpler “Kris Kringle” — at least for the adults.
Prayer and Preparation
Families in our diocese have many wonderful Advent traditions. Advent is, after all, a season of prayer and preparation. Even cards and Christmas cookies can be agents of grace. Our Latino communities have the beautiful custom of the Posada, observing this tradition of visiting one another’s homes and sharing Scripture, faith and food as a commemoration of events before the birth of Jesus. The custom of “Lessons and Carols” has been a mainstay in many English-speaking communities, though the tradition of Christmas carols and Nativity scenes seems actually to have originated in Italy.
Speaking of Nativity scenes, Pope Benedict XVI has just released a book — the third and last volume of a biography of Jesus — that contains some interesting observations. As we have come to expect, unfortunately, press reviews are not uniformly reliable. To hear some reports, the Holy Father would make proclamations to ban animals from Nativity sets and to wipe the name of Jesus off the calendar on Dec. 25.
Perfect Advent Exercise
In reality, Pope Benedict, as an outstanding theologian, does a historical fact check, calling attention to the real meaning of Christmas. A reading of the book would be a perfect Advent exercise, at once intellectually stimulating and spiritually enriching.
Over two millennia of history, Christians have developed many creative traditions and customs to celebrate the birth of Jesus, not all of them referenced in the Bible. Long before the pope’s book, many scholars surmised that Jesus was not born on Dec. 25, indeed several years earlier than 1 A.D., and not with cattle breathing on him. Nor were Northern pine or spruce trees in the vicinity. Our most splendid Christmas paintings tell us as much about the landscape of artisans from Tuscany and the Netherlands than they do about Christ’s Bethlehem.
None of this changes the Christmas message: The all-high God, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, becomes incarnate in the womb of the virgin Mary, is born nine months later and given the name Jesus to be our Savior, to die and to rise that we might live eternally.
Why not resist the temptation to be stifled by demands imposed from a world focused less on its Savior than instant gratification? Why not reclaim Advent and let Christmas come to us?