The November/December Liturgical Logjam The last weeks of November, and on into December, present a matrix of religious and national celebrations and designations. After all, we are in the final two weeks of the Liturgical Year, yesterday being the 33rd of 34 Sundays in that sequence. We continue to remember the souls of the Faithful Departed throughout November. We will celebrate the Feast of Christ the King next Sunday. Thursday following is Thanksgiving, which does indeed have special liturgical eminence in the United States according to the Roman Missal. Just two evenings past Thanksgiving the new Liturgical Season begins, Cycle B focused on the Gospel of St. Mark. There is no denying, though, that the civil calendar plays an indefinite but undeniable role in the liturgical mood of the time. The Feast of the Nativity of the Lord, or Christmas, is not celebrated in the Church until the Vigil Mass of December 24 or First Vespers. However, this years specter of Christmas shopping after Thanksgiving dinner, unfortunate as this is, does remind us that the shallow side of Christmas is already here, and sadly we do embrace it. Many of those Thanksgiving Night shoppers are Catholics without an instinct for the blessedness of the natural family or the worshipping one. I am sure there will be many a sermon on Christ the King or the First Sunday of Advent decrying the desecration of Christmas (who has not heard a November/December sermon in 30 years denouncing the materialism of this age?) and at the cost of good works about Christ the King or the mysterious mood of Advent. Two pastoral suggestions come to mind immediately. The first is that we—church and family--live correspondingly to the Liturgical calendar. I have seen many a school principal or teacher, or religious education director take considerable heat because these educators adhered to the Catholic Calendar and did not permit Christmas parties in class during December. They took a lot of grief from parents who looked upon them as the grinches who stole Christmas. No, setting up a manger on December 3 (or Thanksgiving night, for that matter) is the true theft of the Churchs temporal treasure. Secondly, there is no getting around the fact that our Liturgical calendar will soon be very full--and I left out the Immaculate Conception, St. Andrew, Our Lady of Guadeloupe, St. Nicholas, St. Lucy. Give each day its due rather than lounge in the light of approaching Christmas. The last weeks of Ordinary time, for example, take their theme from “the last things,” notably judgment. Thoughts of my impending judgment do not drive me to egg nog.
Posted on: Tue, 18 Nov 2014 13:33:20 +0000
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015