OU’RE ALMOST DONE, right? You’ve had your last choir rehearsal, finished practicing the organ, and maybe even wrapped your presents and bought your stocking stuffers (disclosure: as of the writing of this post, none of these are true for me). You’re ready for Christmas, and even better than that, the well-deserved rest on the other side of it. I know I am.
I used to get frustrated with all the Celebrating Christmas Early nonsense that infects our culture, even our fellow Catholics. What ever happened to Advent? Why can’t we wait one more month to start celebrating? Okay, okay, it still bothers me a little, especially when the celebration starts even before Thanksgiving.
My real concern, though, isn’t the early celebration. It’s that by the time Christmas actually rolls around, we’re already all celebrated-out. The decorations come down on December 26, ready to come back next November. But this is only the beginning! Christmas begins on December 25, and continues well into January (or February for the EF’ers). It’s easy to see the last Mass on Christmas Day as the finish line, when in reality it’s the start line for the party, only the dawn of the great day.
All this Advent, we’ve been waiting through the violet skies, and got a little taste when they turned rose. There’s a reason we celebrate our first Masses of Christmas at Midnight and at Dawn, as they recall Zechariah’s words that we pray every day at Morning Prayer:
In the tender compassion of our God the dawn from on high shall break upon us, to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace.
Beginning with Christmas, we celebrate a new era, one in which the Almighty Creator of the universe dignified humanity by taking on flesh, ultimately to sacrifice that flesh for our sake. So while all of preparations have been focused on this new beginning, the new dawn, let’s not forget to celebrate the day that we have been looking forward to.
A nap on Thursday afternoon probably wouldn’t hurt, either.
