My dear friends,
I was shocked when I drove back to the rectory from my parents shortly after Christmas. There were trees on the curbs and the lights were turned off. Some of these families had placed trees up weeks before Thanksgiving and practically lit up their whole homes right after Halloween. Just two days after Christmas, it was all gone. Why? Christmas lasts for twelve days and then there’s Epiphany. It ends on January 6th. My lights will go off after this Sunday, the Baptism of the Lord – the end of the Christmas season. The rush to get to Christmas becomes so exhausting, some people are done on Christmas night!
We live in a culture where we push celebrations up before their time. Christmas music is playing is stores in November, and by Christmas night, they’re off the air. Once upon a time, trees went up on Christmas Eve, now they are up for the Thanksgiving turkey dinner. Christmas holidays use to mean a time to gather with family and pass on all the old traditions. Now, it seems like another week of vacation with people heading to Florida or going on skiing trips. Something of the old traditions is dying, and I’m not very happy about that.
Last weekend, did any of you exchange presents? Did the Three Kings or la Befana come to your home? Did anyone remember to chalk the doors? How many of you burned the holly this past Wednesday or celebrate Women’s Christmas? Have any families been burning a Christmas Candle? Have any of you baked ginger bread men? Many of the cultural expressions of our faith are dying.
I’m one of those people who happens to love the Church calendar for what it is. I find joy and comfort in the constant changes and array of celebrations. During Advent, I want it to be Advent, a time of joyful anticipation. I look forward to certain feast days every year, like the Presentation of the Lord (Candlemas), the Annunciation, or the Nativity of St. John the Baptist. I look forward to the cycle of saint days. My name day, March 19th, the Feast of St. Joseph is a favorite, since people give me zeppoles! There’s a rhythm to our holidays and seasons, and the pattern is comfortable and joyous. Sure, Lent is a time of penitence, but it helps us become whole and more loving people if we follow the season. St. Joseph’s Day and the Annunciation are solemnities bringing bits of joy and alleviating the gloom in Lent. Easter is more joyous when Lent was reflective. I look at traditions from around the world that celebrate these holidays and rejoice in the spectrum of Catholic Culture. It’s sad to see things like that vanish.
I choose to celebrate Christmas during Christmas. I will be eating my fruit cake, staring at the ornaments on my tree, and listening to the last of my Christmas albums. Monday, I will start to take it down and box it up for another year. It will be a new season and a new set of holidays and feasts await. But for now, since it is still time, I wish you all a joyous Christmas Season!
Happily yours in Christ, Fr. Joe
January 3, 2021
My dear friends,
Happy New Year! Never have I ever been so happy to celebrate the end of one year and the beginning of a new one! I don’t need to tell any of you how terrible 2020 was. An ugly election year saw greater division across our nation. Civil unrest erupted in our streets in response to the killings of George Floyd and Breanna Taylor. Covid-19 became a global pandemic infecting people over 77 million people and killing over 1.7 million (at least when I wrote this in December). Economies around the world collapsed in response to the infection and millions lost jobs. 2020 was a year that saw more than its fair share of suffering and grief. I am happy to say goodbye!
I know the world is not magically going to change overnight. The turning of a year makes little difference to viruses and crises. We are hardly going to end our divisions, stop the infections, and turn around our problems overnight. That is true, but there is hope. We have vaccines coming to us. I know that I’ll be in line as soon as I am able to receive the shot, making sure I do my part to keep others safe, especially as I go to anoint the sick. There are glimmers of hope for the economy as Congress prepares to pass another stimulus package. (That is of course, only on the table as I write this, and being still in 2020, that could disastrously fall apart at any moment.) The election happened in a pandemic and, despite some questions, seems to have been remarkably free of tampering. The other greater miracle was the sheer number of people who participated, with record numbers of voters. If nothing else, it means Americans were not apathetic; they chose to participate in the process. These glimmers of hope help me see a better year ahead.
Epiphany, which we celebrate this weekend, is the Church holiday about the manifestation of the Incarnation to the world. All people are called to see God Almighty has chosen to become human, sharing his divinity with our mortality. He brings forgiveness, mercy, and hope. The joy of God’s love is clearly seen. That’s true, but only a few men from a distant country bother to even notice the star that appears. None of God’s chosen people even look up to see this miraculous sign. God is in their midst, and they could not care. As discouraging as that is, there is the hope in those Magi. Someone saw and cared. Someone acted on their beliefs. Someone did something rather than sitting by and waiting. Thank god they did!
Epiphany is about seeing the small flicker of light in the darkness. It is about the hope of a better day dawning in the misery and gloom. Despite political unrest and social division, God came to earth to share in our humanity. A better way was evident. The light of Christ still shines for us today. I know I am holding the vision in my sight. While things will not turn around immediately, better things are coming. I trust in the Lord and seek to walk with him. I welcome the New Year and the new chance to find God.