Savor the celebration of Christmas!
Homily preached December 19, 2021
by Monsignor Michael Deering
I have good memories of the many times that I would fly up to Chicago right after New Years Day so that I could celebrate a late Christmas with my Godmother, my Aunt Rita, and also be there to celebrate her Birthday which fell on January 6th.
As I drove around the neighborhoods at night taking her to Dinner or visiting with relatives, we both enjoyed seeing the Christmas lights that decorated so many houses and businesses ... and especially inside the restaurants.
Yes ... here we were ... two to three weeks after Christmas ...
and most everyone in Chicago was still lighting their Christmas lights!
Amazing! Why do you think that was? Well for one thing, it’s cold in Chicago!
And if there’s snow on the ground and ice-cycles on the gutters and a wind chill factor of 2 below zero, the last thing people have on their minds is going outside and taking down their Christmas decorations.
So they leave them up … and they continue to light them … for many weeks!
How different that is from the South, where we might have 50 to 60 degree days after Christmas thereby making it very easy for people to go outside and take down their Christmas decorations.
How shocked I was when I first moved to the South years ago and noticed that people don’t turn on their Christmas lights once Christmas Day is over ...
and radio stations stop playing Christmas songs once Christmas Day has passed!
I was also surprised at how many people put their Christmas trees ...
out at the curb for Trash collection … on the day after Christmas!
This was totally foreign to me. Why would people do this?
Most people, will probably tell you ... they’re tired of it!
I mean they’ve had the tree up for something like 6 weeks ...
and now the needles are falling out and so it’s time to get rid of it!
How sad!
You see, they’ve been fooled by this culture of ours that defines the Christmas Season as running from the day after Halloween until Christmas Day.
That’s a total of 55 days … which is surely enough to make anyone tired.
But that’s not how the Church defines things. The Church defines the Christmas Season as running from ... the Christmas Eve Vigil Mass on Dec. 24th ... through ...
the Baptism of Our Lord on January 9th ... which is a total of just 16 days!
That’s a big difference in duration (Culture w/ 55 days vs. Church w/ 16 days)
and a complete difference in range ... (with society counting all of its days
before Christmas ... and the Church counting all of its days after Christmas).
So you see, all those people, who turn off their Christmas lights and put their trees out for the garbage on Dec. 26th will then go the remaining 15 days of the true Christmas Season, without any special symbols that marked Jesus’ Birthday.
Growing up in Chicago, Mom & Dad put up our Christmas Tree and Lights just one week before Christmas. And I remember a few occasions where ...
we actually put everything up ... on Christmas Eve!
You see ... then it was new ... then it was fresh ... then it meant Christmas.
And then it was no problem leaving it up for the whole Christmas Season. We never took our Tree down until after the Feast of the Epiphany ... which is when
the Three Wise Men come to worship Baby Jesus, celebrated on January 2nd.
Because Christmas is the 2nd highest feast day of the year, the Church wants us
to cherish the profound mystery of that day ... as long as we can!
So, she attaches an Octave of devotion to it. An Octave is an eight-day period of celebration that includes the Feast itself and the next 7 days following the feast.
It’s a time to rejoice and revel in all that happened that First Christmas.
It’s a time to savor and relish the wonder of … the Birth of Our Savior.
So within the 16 days of the true Christmas Season,
the first 8 days are celebrated as the Octave of Christmas.
It’s there in the Octave itself that we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family,
where we honor Jesus and his parents, Mary and Joseph in a special way.
Then, on the last day of the Octave, January 1st ...
we celebrate Mary for her role in being God Bearer,
as we reverence Jesus for being both ... truly human and truly divine.
Next, we celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany on January 2nd, honoring the manifestation of Jesus to the whole world with the coming of the three Magi.
And finally, on Sunday January 9th we celebrate the Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord, which marks the close of the true Christmas Season.
So you see, there are two different forces tugging on your Christmas tree.
While Society is saying,
“Enough already … let’s move on … we’ve had it with Christmas!”
The Church is saying, “Wait, slow down … can we ever stop thanking God for the goodness He has shown in sending His Only Son into the world to be with us?”
Think about it! We’ve been created by a God who loves us so much that He sent His only Begotten Son to come to us and show us the way to Paradise!
Doesn’t it make sense to prolong the celebration of so great an event?
Isn’t this how we conduct other big celebrations?
Think about it! When two people decide to get married, do they celebrate for 55 days before the wedding ... and then have the wedding ... and stop celebrating!
No, they have the wedding first ... and then they start the celebration.
Back in Jesus’ day, wedding celebrations went on for a week or longer.
These days, a lot of preparation takes place before a wedding.
Then on the day of the Wedding, there is typically a Big Wedding Reception.
After which, the couple go off by themselves on a one or two week Honeymoon where they revel in their new state in life … of being husband and wife.
We Catholics strive to do the same thing with Christmas ... we prepare for Christmas in the days of Advent ... then celebrate the Nativity of Jesus on Christmas Day , Dec. 25th and continue that celebration for a good two weeks more.
Don’t let society tell you when Christmas is over; listen to your Church.
The Church tells us to take our time and savor the magnificent mystery that took place in our world at Christmas: that God came to be with us, just as He promised.
This is really Good News. The Church wants us to soak it in for all it’s worth. The 16 days that comprise the Christmas Season, are intended to be days to just bask in the wonder of all that happened on that very First Christmas … 2021 years ago!
It was on that day that the Savior of all Mankind was born into our world.
It was on that day that the unseen God became visible to us as the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity ... took on human form and came to dwell among us.
It was on that day the Angels sang, “Peace on earth … good will to men!”
This Christmas, let’s follow the direction of the Church ...
continuing to prepare for the next 5 days ...
and then savoring the wonder of Christmas for the whole Christmas Season ...
for all 16 days ...
honoring the Holy Family on the Sunday after Christmas,
honoring Mary as God-Bearer on the day after New Year’s,
honoring the Epiphany by the Wise Men on January 6th , and
honoring the Baptism of the Lord on January 9th.
Hopefully there will never be a time when you say,
“Enough of this … I’ve had it with Christmas … let’s move on.”
There’s really no where else we need to go. Celebrating Jesus should never end.
He is the first & the last; the beginning & the end.
He is the Reason for the Season.
He is our Eternal Celebration!
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