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Happy Holidays To Everyone, Everywhere! |
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| Christmas:
a Moveable Feast! For us in the Northern Hemisphere, Christmas is a midwinter feast, a time when the days grow a little longer and light and warmth return slowly. For those who live in the Southern Hemisphere, however, it is the beginning of summer. School is over. It is a time for vacation (or as they would call it "holidays"), for rest and relaxation. It marks not the shortest day of the year but the longest. The festival easily fits into either paradigm because it is so rich in its symbolism. Moreover, no matter where we celebrate the festival, we can find new meaning in it. Do we go away to celebrate? Then so did the Holy Family. Do we gather around our old home and family and recall the great festivals we’ve had here before? So did all the angels gather round the stable in Bethlehem and make it their home. Are there just two or three of us together (at the most)? So we know that wherever two or three are gathered together the Holy Family is with them. Is Christmas lonely and painful because of those we have lost? There is still room for us in the stable if not in the inn. A festival of peace, of gifts, of light, of love, of hope, of warmth. It is very difficult to find a Christian theme which does not fit into the Lord’s birthday. So let us rejoice and be glad therein.
Angels Everywhere! The angels lurk everywhere at Christmas, just as they do in the clip art in this newsletter. I picture them bustling about, filled with their own importance (which in their case would not be undue pride because they are important). I see them dashing to and fro, hither and yon, busy about many tasks — persuading babies to sleep, soothing their parents nervous tension, warning homemakers when the turkey is cooked, guarding the airports against crashes, permitting no special presents to be lost. But, you say, things do go wrong at Christmas! Well, just think of how many more would go wrong if the angels were not on overtime. And think of how many quarrels would not be quickly ended if the angels were on the job. Christmas is the busiest day in the year for mothers, all right. But it is for angels too. If they could be exhausted (and maybe they can!) then they’re surely exhausted by the end of the day.
Mothers’ Christmas The Irish have the wonderful custom of calling January 6 "Mother’s Christmas." There’s not much liturgical sanction for the custom, it is much to be feared. However it’s a grand idea altogether, isn’t it now? On that day, the Irish tell us, the mother doesn’t have to do any work at all, at all — probably the only day of the year that she doesn’t. Moreover, it can be made to fit with the Feast of the Epiphany because within the dense symbolism of that Holy Day, is the "manifestation" of Jesus at the marriage Feast of Cana. Mother’s love is, after all, a sacrament of the love of God who gives us life and nourishment just as gives us life and nourishment as a mother does. Anyway, the least we can do is have a part for Mom on January 6.
Twelfth Night I don’t know what can be done about the wonderful old Christian custom of celebrating the twelve nights of Christmas. Since our "holidays" begin the Monday before Thanksgiving, most of us are about holidayed out by New Year’s Day (which, by the way, like I said last year, is the real first day of the new millennium). Six more nights would be too much, wise men or not. Nor is there necessarily anything wrong with celebrating a feast before instead of after. Yet it would be nice if we left up the decorations till January 6 in honor of the wise men and all the other strange, foreign people who have come to see the Lord and stay and remain with Him. There is room for the shepherds who couldn’t read and write and room for the wise men who could read the stars or thought they could. Christmas means "Here Comes Everyone."
Colds at Christmas Are you one of those people like me who begin to sniffle a couple of days before Christmas, to cough on Christmas Eve and to become incoherent on Christmas morning. It’s just not fair. You can tell yourself that you’ll tough it out, pretend you’re not sick, ruin no one else’s day. But it’s no good. Furthermore, you know that you’ll be sick at least till New Year’s day. What can I tell you? God loves us even when we feel miserable and grumpy with a cold. So does everyone else. Take advantage of all the tender loving care that is given you. If someone offers you a hot toddy, take it. The cold won’t go away, but you won’t notice the cold any more.
May candles glow for you in
every window, |
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Check out Andrew Greeley's Columns for the Chicago SunTimes's Daily Southtown.
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