Oh! Just go ahead!
And actually most of you already have and even without my permission.
As if you even really needed my permission or cared about it.
But just in case, you have my permission especially this year and so, go ahead.
Put up that Christmas Tree!
And as I say that, I will also speak a word of truth. As I write this, my tree is still not up but it is a simple, made by my parents, ceramic, lighted tree, probably four pieces. It will likely take all of about five minutes to set up, longer if I count the struggle to get at that outlet to plug in a timer. But this tree goes up tomorrow. That is my plan.
And I am reading more and more, including in some Catholic publications, words of encouragement to go ahead a put out those signs of Christmas this year, especially this year. In a year like 2020 we need a little Christmas.
No!
We need a whole lot of Christmas!
This year may not look much like Christmases of our past. There likely will not be those large gatherings, office parties, crowds of revelers singing Carols in the streets. The malls, so I am hearing, are mere echos of their former selves. Even family gatherings may not look like those of our Christmases Past.
In so many ways life has been changed and we have been changed and our customs and traditions are being affected. Why, it is likely that this year you may even need a ticket to take part in a Christmas Mass!
So, in this most unusual of times, I say feel free! Go ahead! Put up that Christmas Tree.
And those who have known me over the years can testify as to how radical that might sound coming from me.
See, as a liturgist I have tended over the years to be something of a purist, a rigorous purist. I would be the one to declare that it is Advent and that should be a time of waiting and so let's not rush the season. In parishes where I served, Christmas decorations did not appear in any shape or form until after the last Mass of Advent. The hours of Christmas Eve were spent hauling in sizable Christmas trees and multitudes of poinsettia plants, and stringing lights and so on and so on.
Christmas did not arrive until the last minutes of Advent.
In fact I can still recall a Christmas Eve many years ago. My whole family was coming to the rectory for Christmas Eve dinner. I could not risk heading out any distance on a Michigan winter's night as I was presiding at a Vigil Mass and later at the Midnight Mass.I had to be home or very, very near. And so, in between the two Masses, we would have our dinner and share our gifts and enjoy a bit of Christmas.
Family arrived shortly before the scheduled Vigil Mass and as they arrived, bearing gifts to place under the tree for exchanging later, one by one they stared at the tree.
"Your tree has no lights on it yet!"
"Your tree is not decorated!"
And they were, of course, absolutely correct.
The lights and the ornaments were still in boxes scattered on the floor around the tree.
And so I informed and instructed them, "While I am at Mass, the first Mass of Christmas, you can spend your time decorating the tree and the house!"
Christmas would arrive when Christmas actually arrived.
That is the sort of liturgical purist I was.
But I am older now and maybe even a bit wiser and I can also read better the signs of the times. And the times in which we are living now are different times and even for so many difficult times.
And so we need to know that, even though we are a people waiting for His coming, we also know that He has come to dwell among us and bring us hope and bring us healing.
He is still and always with us.
So, go ahead. Put up that tree. Turn on those lights. Play that music.
In these darkest of days, celebrate the presence among us of the True Light of the World!
Meantime,
Keep Praying
. . . and Stay Safe!
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