When To Decorate Your Christmas Tree
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I thought we could reflect on something which lacks any controversy and people don’t hold strong opinions about at all. So, I thought we could talk about when you should decorate and when it is one should listen to Christmas music ; ) But seriously, having just celebrated the most solemn feast of Christ the King, it is now time to turn our attention to Advent. This season is often neglected or misunderstood for what it is, or maybe, our lives conflict mightily with a season that is about silence and waiting.
It seems difficult to date exactly when Advent first came to be observed in the Church, but we do know St Gregory of Tours speaks in his second book, History of the Franks, about a fasting and penitential period that was carried out by a previous bishop, St Perpetuus, around the year 480AD. This initial period prescribed fasting 3 days a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from St Martin’s Feast Day until Christmas. Because this was about forty days, forty-three to be exact, it came to be known as the St Martin’s Fast. Down through the centuries, this period of preparation before Christmas looked more rigorous in some time periods, and less in others. In fact, in certain places it had to be renewed because it had fallen out of observance, or was only observed by the monks of that area. You might say that is where we are at today. It’s easy for us to see this time as a time to get ready for the events around Christmas, rather than the singular event of Christmas, the Nativity of our Savior, Jesus Christ, according to the Flesh. So, the real question is: What will your advent look like? How will you prepare?
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As Catholics, we prepare by increasing our Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving. We slow down. We get quieter. Then, the Feast! But with Advent we listen to the world and end up doing the opposite. As soon as Thanksgiving hits, we think about it as the Christmas season. Then, Christmas comes and it is over. We put up our tree in November and start having Christmas Parties and then take it down and stop having parties right after! The Church has something better in mind. She wants us to prepare, so that we might really FEAST! We always talk about the “holiday weight gain”, but if we really observed advent, we’d come into Christmas prepared to feast!
Most of us have worked hard and prepared for a goal we have achieved in our lives. It is an incredible feeling. I may not look like it now, but I ran a marathon. It took incredible discipline. I exerted tremendous physical effort daily. I ate differently. My schedule looked different. The day came and I was ready. I ran it in 4:27. I basked in that feeling for a month after. My joy and my accomplishment were unmatched. This is not unlike Advent. The quiet. The Waiting. The Preparation. It is hard to explain what a feast is like after you have really fasted. I know during this time of the pandemic and everything that has happened, we are tempted to rush to that which will give us joy. But, might this be your Christmas to find out what it is to prepare and wait?
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Advent comes from the Latin adventus which literally translates as “coming to, toward”. There are three “comings” of Christ. The first was in time, as an infant. The second, will be at the Close of the Age, “to judge the living and the dead” as the Creed says. Third, He comes to us on the Altar at every Mass. So a common thing we miss is that Advent isn’t all about Christmas. The first two weeks of Advent are primarily oriented toward the second “advent”, or coming, of Christ when he will come again in GLORY. The Gospel Reading for the First Sunday of Advent cautions us to, “Be watchful, be alert for you do not know when the master of the house is coming”! While in the last two weeks, we turn our attention toward the cave in Bethlehem and await the birth of the Messiah. This gives us an orientation to our prayer. The First 2 weeks we prepare for the end of the world, as we know it, for Christ’s glorious Second Coming. As a follower of Jesus, right now, maybe you are listening in your car, or looking out the window, how would you feel if you saw the Son of Man seated on the clouds coming in glory? If your first thought was “frightened” or “not ready”, that’s why there is Advent, so that you can prepare.
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God is coming, so we wait, not passively, but with an active receptivity. Silence is what is needed. Cardinal Sarah in his book on silence says, “Man must make a choice: God or nothing, silence or noise.”
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The Church gives us these seasons for a reason, so that we can live out all the facets of Christ’s life. Advent is a season of waiting and preparing and while it is not as penitential as Lent, it certainly has some of that character. So, I am certainly not here to lay down any rules about when to listen to Christmas Music and when to decorate your tree, only to share with you Advent’s meaning. Hopefully it leads you to evaluate what you are doing and why. Does what you are doing bring you into greater conformity with Christ and the Liturgy? If not, with Christ’s help, change. Maybe wait to put the lights up, or one friend I have outs purple lights on his family’s tree until Christmas Eve. Whatever it is, what can you do this week to prepare for Christ’s coming?