DECEMBER 6
Secularism has really taken hold of Christmas. Most people think the Twelve Days of Christmas start before December 25. When you ask people to name some Christmas songs, the replies are Must be Santa, Last Christmas, or other secular hits.
Even more interesting, many churches do not have worship on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, but they celebrate Christmas on the prior Sunday. If they do have worship on Christmas Eve, they often do it very early in the evening, or even in the late afternoon, before the sun sets and before Christmas officially begins. Worship on the day of Christmas bit the dust years ago in most churches. The rush to Christmas Eve's family extravaganzas drains so much energy out of people, that nothing is left for adoring the Christ Child on Christmas Day itself.
I saw a funny cartoon not too long ago. It showed a pumpkin, a turkey, and a santa, each racing cars, and each was to stay in their proper lane, labeled by the months October, November, and December. The pumpkin and the turkey were playing by the rules, but Santa was trying to cut the other two off and drag race in the October lane. The pumpkin and the turkey were shouting, "stay in your lane!" Secular Christmas dominates everything, and of course, the true meaning of Christmas was completely missing from the cartoon.
Add to this the traditional themes of Advent: death, judgment, heaven, and hell. While Santa is trying to take over October, the traditional church is still ignoring Christmas throughout most of December, with the last Sunday of Advent having the theme of hell! Years ago one Advent, the preachers at St. Mark's focused on the traditional four themes of Advent. Surprisingly, the sermons were very well received, because ultimately people are craving the deeper mysteries of the faith, even if they cannot name such desire consciously.
At St. Mark's we continue to champion the traditional worship times for Christmas. Our first mass of Christmas is near midnight, and we will have a solemn mass on Christmas Day. Sometimes our Christmas Day mass has been fuller than the midnight mass. On Christmas Day the official counting of Christmas begins, and on Friday, January 5, the Twelfth Day of Christmas and Epiphany Eve, we will celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany. Our practice may be out of step with secular society, but that also keeps us in good company.
Authentic Christianity has always been out of touch with the "real world." Ironically, if you want true reality, one must follow the ways of Jesus. God is the most real thing there has ever been. The truth is that it is secular society that is out of touch with reality, for nothing shall ever be more real than Jesus lying in a crib in Bethlehem, Jesus dying on the cross at Calvary, and Jesus rising from the dead on the third day. This is the only reality Christians truly need.
Father Paul Lillie +
