The following comes from a December 1 OC Catholic article by Meg Waters:
One of the main reasons the Puritans separated from their Protestant churches and set sail for the New World was their objection to the materialism and general debauchery of the Christmas season. If 17th Century Europe was on the road to perdition over Christmas extravagance, do we have a prayer?
Is it a bad thing that, from the first fun-size Snickers on Halloween to the last drop of champagne in the wee hours of the New Year, we are high on expectations, low on willpower? Are heartfelt gifts to family and friends, parties with lavish food and drink and general holiday cheer reasons to seek the confessional? Can you have a humble and holy Christmas and still have fun?
“For God, all things are possible,” said Jesus in Matthew 19:26. This statement comes just after He finishes telling Peter and the Apostles that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the gates of heaven. The secret is detachment from your camel of materialism. If you get off your camel, God’s mercy will squeeze you through the gate.
But God is not a killjoy. Jesus began his ministry at a wedding party so grand that the host ran out of wine. Instead of preaching abstinence, Jesus brought even better wine to the party. And perhaps that is the small paradigm shift we could bring to this year’s holidays. How can we bring better wine – that warms the body and lifts the soul? Wine that lasts long after the broken ornaments are swept away.
In his Christmas address last year, Pope Francis said, “In a society so often intoxicated by consumerism and hedonism, wealth and extravagance, appearances and narcissism, this (Christ) child calls us to act soberly, in other words, in a way that is simple, balanced, consistent, capable of seeing and doing what is essential…Amid a culture of indifference which not infrequently turns ruthless, our style of life should instead be devout, filled with empathy, compassion and mercy.”
As we wind up this Jubilee Year of Mercy, let us begin our holidays by reviewing the past year in terms of how much we gave of our devotion, empathy, compassion and mercy. If we are short on a few items, there is still time. These gems we give to our family, friends and even strangers will last longer than any present, regardless of its cost. Even better, these are gifts that give back in terms of true joy.
There is a fine line between gift giving and using material things as a placeholder for real love. According to Katie Dawson, director of Parish Faith Formation for the Diocese, “All things should be used in the context of being drawn closer to God. When we adopt a lifestyle of unrestrained consumption, are we really using things to draw us closer to God? Or do we shop as a means of diversion, seeking to be filled?”
We wake up on Jan. 2 to credit card bills and a house full of stuff that often gets tossed or put in the donation basket before the cycle begins again.
Thanksgiving, Christmas and all the holiday gift giving should not be stingy or Puritanical, but extravagant with meaning. The secret to holiday happiness is to keep all these things in the spirit of what truly matters. The spirit of the world is wrapped in the material, God calls us to take His magnificent world and use it to direct our lives to Him. But it is not easy. Dawson adds that with all good things, the material can be used to divert us, or worst still, it can become our god. When material possessions and physical comfort are as important as or more important than spiritual values, we abandon our God for a much lesser one.
So this Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve bring a better wine to the party. Focus more on the love and less on the lavish. The best part is it will be the lead up to a vintage year.
the puritans inherited this anti-christmas celebration stance from calviinism. it intensified when the counter=reformation was successful at defending catholicism. from there on, the celebration of christmas was identified with popery and became a dividing line in the reliiiigious war. at the time of st francis of assisi, the cathar heresy denied the goodness of the creation and ‘laudato si’ was written to embrace a good world built by a good God. the puritans in america were in constant doctrinal flux and melted away.
Thank you for posting this excellent reminder about the real meaning of Christmas!
By the way, Christmas did not come from the pagan Saturnalia. If anything it was the reverse. The date of Christmas came from the early Jewish Christians who lost ties with the synagogue. They were trying to decide the date of the Lord’s conception until his birth from their knowledge of the Jewish calendar. If one notices, Christmas comes around Hanukkah, a Jewish holiday which the Lord Jesus celebrated. In the New Testament it says that the Lord Jesus went up to the temple in the winter for a holy day. It was the feast of lights — Hanukkah.
Regarding my last post, John 10: 22-23 refers to the Lord Jesus Christ going up to the Temple to celebrate Hanukkah.
And in answer to the question above. Yes, we can. A little egg nog with brandy, a glass of wine or beer according to ones weight, so as not to get too intoxicated is fine for those who can handle it, but no falling down drunk, driving under the influence or debauchery should take place. The Puritans were against that, and rightly so, but they went too far the other way and outlawed the holy day. They did drink rum, nonetheless.
And God bless all the St. John the Baptists who choose not to drink wine or strong alcohol. You help keep us all sober. Now I have said enough.
Preparation for Christmas.
So, today 12/7/2016 one can also meditate on this being the Vigil of the Immaculate Conception and the coming Octave. The Feast and its following Octave (Dec 8th-16) were established to lead directly to the Octave before Christmas (Dec. 17th-24th) when the “O Antiphons” commence.
According to the great Benedictine liturgy scholar, Dom Gaspar Lefebvre (d. 1966), whom others have noted on this website, the feast was first kept in England on Dec 8th, from the 11th C. (the Eastern Church already celebrated the feast on Dec. 9th from at least the 8th C). . As many know, Duns Scotus and the Franciscans elevated the feast in their rite from the 13th C. on. The Franciscan pope, Sixtus IV (d.1484),…
…(d.1484), the pope who restored the Sistine Chapel (since named after him), in fact dedicated the chapel to the Immaculate Conception.
Now, what is interesting is what a now-deceased USF Jesuit professor researched and is related here:
“In December, 1531, Juan Diego was keeping the Octave of the Immaculate Conception attending daily Mass by traveling from his village where he lived in the northern part of the Valley of Mexico, on the shores of the shallow Lake Texcoco, to the Franciscan church of Santiago de Tlatelolco, where the Franciscans may have been celebrating special devotions for the week-long Immaculate Conception Octave. The distance one-way is considerable, about 8 or so kilometers. One of his special intentions during his devotional Octave might have been for his gravely-ill uncle, for whom he was also caring. “