Nativity Catholic Church
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Getting Rid of Christmas Early
A "FIRESTARTER" Spiritual Essay by Rev.
Dr. Benjamin
Berinti, C.Pp.S. At first I thought there might have been an infestation of bugs or some kind of bark disease that is dangerous to infants and pets which had caused its too-early demise. Maybe because of the heat-snap we had before Christmas the needles had become too dry and posed a major fire hazard to the home. Or still, maybe Aunt Clara’s cat got to a dangling string of lights on Christmas Eve (a la National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation) and brought the Tannenbaum crashing to the floor. I was tempted to get out of the car and check for the bugs or bark rot, to give it a good shaking to see if the needles were hopelessly dropping away, to look for singe marks from the cat’s claws. However, I feared that someone might drive by and think I was so thoroughly distressed with my Christmas morning haul that I had to be rooting through other people’s trash just to find something I liked! My mind raced back and forth for some reasonable explanation, although, from the start, I feared there were no words that would make any sense to me. How was it possible that someone’s Christmas Tree could be out on the front curb, stripped of its glorious décor, naked as a newborn, bright and early the morning after Christmas Day?!? The lasting echoes of “Glory to God in the Highest” were still floating through time and space, and someone had already had enough of Christmas! I suppose this is the constant, insane challenge of life in our culture—we start things way too early (purely for economic reasons), then we get sick of all the hype and “preparation,” and finally, we dispose of the occasion or event as quickly as possible. Even for many Christians, Christmas Day has quickly become an “afterthought.” If you look back at the schedules for “Christmas” liturgies throughout the Diocese of Orlando (but certainly not limited to here), you will find that the majority of our Eucharistic celebrations of the Nativity occur on Christmas Eve, not on Christmas Day. We have all kinds of “reasons” we now give for this pattern of worship, but in the end, it all seems to revolve around “convenience”—something that the Nativity has little in common with! I wonder what the birth of Jesus Christ would have been like, how it all would have been orchestrated had God been better at knowing the nuances of our modern concern with “convenience” and efficiency. I suppose that gathering a whole “heavenly host” on such short notice for their angelic concert announcing the birth of the Lord was not appreciated. Oh sure, from what we have been led to believe, angels are constantly in choir practice, so why shouldn’t they be ready to sing at the drop of a feathery wing, but still, God could have given a little more notice for the “big one”! Clearly for the shepherds, the timing of the grand announcement in the middle of their night watch, when other marauding competitors might come and steal away one’s flock, one’s livelihood, was not convenient. Off to Bethlehem, however, we are told they went; leaving behind most of their flocks in order to seek out the lone, newborn infant—sounds almost as inconvenient as “another shepherd” we learn about later who leaves 99 sheep in search of one stray! Perhaps we may find a kindred spirit in King Herod. Oh no, not in his maniacal jealousies and outrageous actions, but rather in the simple fact that it was not convenient for him to learn of a “king” who might dethrone him! Herod, more than anyone else in the infancy narratives (except perhaps the infamous “innkeeper,” who definitely said the timing of Mary’s childbirth couldn’t have come at a worse time—national census, huge crowds, mayhem…come on!) seems to react honestly to the news of the birth of the Christ—this just won’t do! It messes up all his plans; there is no room for a rival at the gate. After all, what sort of work is there for deposed kings? Unfortunately, unlike folks who are “deposed” from their thrones of fame in our day, there weren’t any 60 Minutes, or Good Morning Jerusalem, or Bethlehem Enquirer for Herod to tell his story to—and at least make some money and renewed fame from his shame! Then, of course, what about Mary’s conception and Joseph’s dream sequences…best not to even go there! There is a lot about Christmas that isn’t efficient, nor convenient, nor able to be wrapped up in a crisp package with tight corners, nor easily stowed away until next season in those fabulously designed ornament storage boxes. Christmas doesn’t seem to fit into any nice, neat categories, no matter how we try to control it. There is much to the birth of the Messiah that is discomforting, disconcerting, and radical. With the way some aspects of our celebrations of Christmas have developed in our culture, there is plenty of good reason to say “goodbye” to Christmas on December 26th. I think I’d tire of gazing at a drying, brittle tree that’s been sitting in my living room since before Thanksgiving Day, too. I think that after the exhausting activities of the pre-Christmas festivities, as enjoyable as friends and family are in these special gatherings, I’d want to bite the bullet and get it all “cleaned up” as quickly as possible. But the beauty of Christmas is that it doesn’t “clean up” that easily nor quickly. Its effects continue to resonate within us and penetrate our world every day of the year—throughout our entire lives. Since the Word is made flesh and dwells among us, we can never be the same. Even though that once stately, magnificently illuminated tree is now a victim of “Christmas Burn-Out” and awaits being gathered up by the trash man, then hauled off to an overloaded landfill, or perhaps in environmentally-conscious communities, to be dumped into a local lake for fish habitat enhancement, its memory lives on. Yes, somewhere in the middle of April during “Spring cleaning,” or one day late in August when deciding to repaint the den, we often discover a few of those pesky needles still wedged firmly into the carpet, or stuffed under a couch cushion! Christmas memories still survive in spite of our quick disposal methods. Holding on to Christmas seems harder each year, but that’s probably because we grasp at the wrong elements. Christmas is “held” close every time we choose to act on behalf of the poor, who like the infant child, had no place to rest his head, except in the middle of a feed trough. And this child continues to be food for us now. Christmas is held close, every time we eat his body and drink his blood.
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