When I was a 27 year old priest,
ordained one year, I went on the first of five back-packing trips to Europe
with college students from Somerset Community College. Somerset is down at the
eastern end of Lake Cumberland. Before
we spread out across Europe, we would spend a week camping out in Taize, a
small, sleepy French village on top of a hill overlooking the vineyards of
It didn't take me long to realize that American students who went to Taize were a bit different from European students. Unlike American students, the typical European students could speak two or more languages. Unlike American students who knew all about American pop music and films and almost nothing about American politics and even less about the politics of other European countries, the typical European students knew all about American music and films, but they also had a great familiarity with, and interest in, American, as well as in European politics.
Another noticeable difference back then was that the American students started partying the first night, even before they had gotten to know any of the students from other countries, while the Europeans tended to wait till they had something to celebrate. It was only after a few days, after they had made some new friends, that their celebrations started and the wine began to flow!
Americans do something similar to that every year at this time. Traditionally, the Church asks us to use the four weeks of Advent as a time to prepare ourselves, from the inside out, for the celebration of Christmas. However, we tend to skip Advent and move right into celebrating Christmas, putting up decorations and playing carols, sometimes even before Halloween and Thanksgiving, without much thought to its meaning. Since we skip over reflecting on what Christmas is really all about, we are now calling it the "holiday season," as if we were a bit embarrassed by its real name - "Christmas." The number one "Christmas card" now, according to "Family Feud," is one with greetings from "Santa Claus." Like American students at Taize, we now start the party as early as September without stopping long enough to consider exactly what we are actually celebrating - other than some kind of vague "holiday togetherness."
I am not here to throw cold water on decking the halls with boughs of holly, tree trimming, bright lights, Christmas cookies, fruit cakes or even shopping for presents. All I am saying here is that all that emphasis on external preparation can end up making this religious holiday more and more meaningless if it is not preceded by some internal preparation. Maybe it is a sign of old age, but I think the Catholic celebrations of Christmas in the past struck more of the real balance. We celebrated the Season of Advent with some slightly somber, even longing music, with a little fasting and with a touch of starkness. The tree wasn't usually decorated until Christmas Eve and even if it needed to be decorated early, it was often hidden in a sealed off room until it was "time." Christmas music was pretty much restricted to school plays until Midnight Mass or Christmas morning when it thundered joyously from the choir lofts of our Churches. In other words, the celebration of Christmas began on Christmas and went for twelve days after Christmas! Now Christmas ends pretty much as soon as Christmas dinner is consumed! While the stores are taking down all the decorations, and putting out the Valentine cards, the Church seems so "behind the times" as it tries to hold to its ancient traditions of celebrating Epiphany and ending the Christmas season with the Baptism of Our Lord by mid January!
What am I trying to say here? As one spiritual writer put it, "It's easier to put on slippers than to carpet the world." As an individual, me trying to change our culture's way of celebrating the holidays, would be like me standing in the median of the Watterson Expressway trying to get speeding cars to drive in the opposite direction. My attempt would not only fail, but the cars flying by would only see me as another "nut case" loose on the highway and probably call the cops.
Since I cannot carpet the world, I have decided to put on slippers. I have decided a few years back not to get sucked personally into our culture's way of celebrating Christmas, but to decide on my own how I will celebrate it. I feel like I am swimming against the stream, but each year I simplify, simplify, simplify! Each year, I try to do less external preparation and try to prepare myself more and more internally. I realize that this is much harder if you have children, but I still believe something can be done! Advent offers us a great opportunity to teach the kids a little about the idea of "delayed gratification."
These words from our first reading from the prophet Isaiah (2:1-2) provide us with an outline for claiming our own personal Advent Season.
"Climbing the Lord's mountain" is a metaphor for simply trying to "rise above all the hustle and bustle" and stepping away from "all the excess and chaos!" Instead of trying to do more and more and trying to make things "bigger and better," I try to do less so as to make room to think about what all this means, so as to listen to the message of Advent more carefully in order that it might better "instruct me in his ways" so that ultimately I might better "walk in his paths" in the coming year.
"It is easier to put on slippers than carpet the world." By ourselves, you and I will not be able to change the way our culture celebrates Christmas, but we can decide how we will celebrate it! We can choose to change our own behaviors! We can choose not to join the stampede with the rest of the herd! We can make a start this year by doing a little less external preparation and a bit more internal preparation. We can choose to carve out some time to "climb the mountain of the Lord," to rise above the madness, for a few minutes at least, so that we can be "instructed in his ways" and maybe "walk in his paths" a little better during the coming year. Maybe we can still do a little this year to prepare ourselves from the inside out and then even a little more next year and then even more than that the year after! Slowly, but surely, maybe we can be part of taking Christmas back from those who don't believe in it anymore and feel just fine with lumping Jesus together with Santa, Rudolf, Frosty and other cute mythical figures!
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