G.K. Chesterton rightly says “it would be vain to say anything adequate, or anything new” about Christmas (The Everlasting Man). Chesterton underlines the caution any writer or speaker should have in approaching the topic of Jesus’ birth. Forgive me for being so vain or bold to attempt to do so.
My own reason for venturing in this direction began over two decades ago while walking down Broad Street in historic Charleston, South Carolina, the day after Christmas. I was then bishop of the Diocese of Charleston and usually took daily strolls on the streets of Charleston for exercise. That day someone was tossing a Christmas tree off the second-floor balcony of a beautiful home. Had I been walking a bit more briskly, the tree could have landed on top of me.
I was jolted into an awareness that for that person, as for many people in Western society, Christmas is definitely over on Christmas day. For most people, Christmas is a once-for-all celebration of the special event of the birth of Christ.
My Catholic liturgical expert friends were trying to help me discover a deeper reality. Christmas is not a day! Christmas is a season!
One of my more insightful Catholic friends suggested to me that the problem really was not with our celebration of Christmas as Catholics. The problem was more deep-rooted. It was that many of us were not taking seriously enough the celebration of the season of Advent that leads up to Christmas. We begin celebrating Christmas way too early — some people, already before Thanksgiving.
For many people, such as certain Eastern Christian communities, Advent is celebrated for six weeks and is a quasi-penitential season, though not as intense as Lent. The season of Advent is taken very seriously by those communities.
With that background in mind, several years ago I began a campaign to help alert those Catholics I was committed to serve that Christmas is more than a day. It is a season. And we prepare to celebrate the great season of Christmas by the celebration of the special season of Advent.
Thanks to the good people of EWTN (the Eternal Word Television Network), several years ago I was invited to share reflections on the Christmas season, which I inadvertently entitled “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” I was later to discover that there are now more than 12 days in the Christmas season. Prior to the Second Vatican Council the Christmas season normally ended with the Solemnity of the Epiphany. With the liturgical reforms following the Council, the season of Christmas was extended to the Solemnity of the Baptism of the Lord. In subsequent years for the EWTN reflections, I made a correction to include additional meditations.
It is interesting that the Christmas crib was displayed in St. Peter’s Square under recent popes until Feb. 2, the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, also referred to as Candlemas Day. This custom reflects an early practice in the Church of extending the celebration of Christmas until this later time.
All of these observations serve as a backdrop to my conclusions as to why the seasons of Advent and Christmas matter and how we as Catholics might make an effort to celebrate them in special ways.
- The birth of Christ is too special an event to be taken lightly or celebrated on one day only. What transpired with the birth of Christ changed the course of history and of our own personal history as well. Our salvation was introduced into the world, our freedom from the forces of evil and the power of Satan made its entrance into the world on Christmas day. Hope for humankind happened with that single event. The tragic event of the sin of Adam was reversed by the Savior of our world, born on the first Christmas day. His birth was to usher in a new era that would culminate in his tragic death and his glorious resurrection, all of which meant victory over sin, suffering, and death for the faithful followers of Jesus.
- Christ’s birth inaugurated our birth spiritually and our ability to bring his message of hope into our world. The celebration of Christ’s birth needs to be perpetuated to enable us to meditate on the role we play in advancing this Kingdom of hope in our day and time. We are called to bring light into the darkness of the world that we live in. There is no problem too great for the hope brought by our Savior’s birth, and we are, as baptized and confirmed Catholics, instruments of that hope born into this world in Bethlehem.
- We can be creative in the ways we celebrate the Christmas season. Involving our children in daily prayers and meditations each day of the Christmas season will make a difference in our entire family’s approach to the event of Christ’s birth and help each family member to appreciate the importance of that event. Some liturgical or para-liturgical aids exist. More are needed. I will provide information on one at the end of this article.
- Let Advent be Advent and Christmas be Christmas. They are two different seasons. Advent is a time of preparation, of expectancy, of anticipation. The Christmas season is a time of the realization of that hope and a continuation of that hope. The use of the Jesse tree and other para-liturgical religious symbols foster an appreciation for the Jewish figures who prepared the way for the Messiah. Advent rekindles an awareness of their importance and roles in paving the way for the Messiah. We should let our Advent readings and prayers awaken us to their role in the plan of salvation. Make Advent special! Delay the celebration of Christmas until Christmas day! The Church’s liturgy and daily Mass readings will help you do that. We need to prepare our hearts for the coming of the Messiah, who came in the past, but comes again each day.
- Consider making the Holy Eucharist a part of your Advent and Christmas Season celebrations, perhaps adding one day or more of your week to attend daily Mass. If that is not possible, consider doing an hour of adoration before the Blessed Sacrament at your parish or at a daily Adoration Chapel nearby. Pope Francis encouraged young people to spend time in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament at World Youth Day in Lisbon, Portugal. My dear friend, Mother Elvira Petrozzi, now deceased incorporated Mass and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament into her healing efforts for people in her Cenacolo communities throughout the world, with great effect. Our U.S. bishops are helping our American Catholics recover from a lost sense of the importance of the Eucharist in our daily lives that has led to so many difficulties in family life.
- Grab a good book of meditations for the Seasons of Advent and Christmas that will help you enter into the spirit of these holy seasons. May I recommend one that puts into print some of my meditations over the years on EWTN, with additional reflections? The title of the book is Rejoicing in our Hope: Meditations for the Advent and Christmas Seasons. My meditations all end with the lighting of the Advent Candles during Advent and a prayer or the lighting of what I call the “Christ Candle of Hope” and a prayer prayed during the Christmas season. It is a family-friendly book with pictures for the kids.
Let us all help our children celebrate well these seasons that little children can identify with well, and in which adults can rekindle the spirit of a little child anew: the great and holy Seasons of Advent and Christmas!
Bishop Robert J. Baker served as bishop of Charleston, South Carolina, from 1999 to 2007, and bishop of Birmingham, Alabama, from 2007 to 2020.