ADVENT IS NOT ALWAYS WHAT IT SEEMS …
Take a look at the picture above. The first time I saw this on Facebook, I had to look twice … then I read
the caption and had a good laugh. What I thought I saw was what the comedian
Pauly Shore called “cheek chillers,” in a movie (He was wearing cowboy chaps). Then I looked again and saw
that the woman is carrying a beige colored neck pillow. Things aren't always what they seem to be.
I think that it is important that
we look at Advent just as carefully. Just as there is a right way and a wrong
way to carry a beige colored neck pillow, there is a right way to prepare for
Christmas and a wrong way to prepare for Christmas. Back during the Great
Depression of the 1930’s, President Roosevelt declared that the time from the
Friday following Thanksgiving Day (what we now call “Black Friday”) to Christmas
Day would be called the “Christmas Season.” He did this so that people would go
out and buy things, thus stimulating the economy. This economic move was
successful and gradually the American economy recovered. The downside to this
was that from that moment on, American society has confused the time of Advent with
Christmas. Religiously, this time is far from being Christmas. Advent is a
time of preparation. We are really about preparing for the second coming of
Jesus, and, while we do this we remember the first coming of Christmas. In our society, however, Advent has become a time of celebrating Christmas long before it happens. We have Christmas parties galore. We exchange gifts long before Christmas Day. Our celebrations are so grand that when Christmas Day occurs it becomes anti-climatic and ho-hum. Christmas Day becomes a let down. We have put our Christmas cart before the horse, to adapt an old adage.
When my wife, Ruthie, was growing
up with her family on the farm, all the Christmas decorations and the Christmas tree were put up
on Christmas Eve. While the decorations were going up, Ruthie’s mom was busy
baking all the Christmas cookies and other wonderful treats for Christmas.
Christmas began for Ruthie’s family on Christmas Eve. In my family, which contrastingly was
very urban from Ruthie's rural setting, we set up the Christmas tree on the 1st Sunday of
Advent, however, to emphasize that we were preparing for the birth of Jesus, there was
an empty crèche that held a place of honor underneath the tree. The figures of Mary, Jesus and Joseph gradually
traveled from table to table, throughout the house, to the fireplace mantle and so on until Christmas
Eve night, when the holy family figurines were finally placed inside the crèche. While my brother, sister and I slept Christmas Eve night, it was then that the presents were placed underneath the tree for us to find on Christmas morning. For
both of our families, Christmas did not begin until after the first Mass on
Christmas. Then we "kept" and celebrated Christmas until the Baptism of the Lord.
I don't mean to sound like a Scrooge about Christmas. There is nothing wrong about putting up Christmas decorations and
bedecking the house in lights. What I am encouraging is that we "keep" Advent as a time of preparation for Christmas, so that when Christmas Day comes, we can then "keep" Christmas. The Christmas Carol, "The Twelve Days of Christmas" sings about 12 days of partying following Christmas. I think that is a great idea, and far better than what we do in our society.
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