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Christmas is a Season, not simply one day

While so many of our cultures only celebrate the build-up to Christmas, as a faith community we celebrate Christmas for more than two full weeks. And, there is much to celebrate here, much to enter into more deeply. Too often, the days before Christmas are too busy to enter into the meaning of this feast and to chew the daily scriptures and the graces that are offered us, in our concrete life circumstances. This first week is a time for us to enter into the stories of special saints who are associated with the Birth of our Lord because of their innocence: our first martyr, the Disciple Jesus loved, and the Holy Family. Next week, we return to the days after Jesus' birth.

What this First Week Offers Us
Friday is Christmas Day, the first day in this eight-day celebration of the Octave of Christmas. We take joy in the story of the nativity and of our savior's entrance into the world in the most humble of ways.

December 26, the day after Christmas, is the Feast of St. Stephen, the first Martyr. The reading from Acts takes us into the story of his being stoned by an infuriated crowd.

The Feast of the Holy Family is always celebrated on the Sunday after Christmas. What family or faith community can't benefit from reflecting upon the Holy Family? This is not the time to reflect upon a "perfect family," but to ask ourselves how we might be blessed to reflect upon Joseph, Mary and Jesus, and ask ourselves what graces they could offer us. And, this allows us a bit more time to reflect upon the Christmas story, including the everyday reality that was part of their lives as family - the patience, give and take, the self-sacrifice and the love that was a part of their very human interaction together, throughout what we call "the hidden life" of Jesus. That can include all the growing up years of Jesus' life, what their village was like and what ways they spoke with each other, as well as what difficulties they might have experienced. These are all great ways for us to contemplate this feast. We can imagine what Jesus learned from both Mary and Joseph that prepared him for his life of proclaiming the coming of the Reign of God. Finally, we can imagine the death of Joseph and the life of Mary and Jesus after his death.

On December 28th, we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Innocents. This celebration takes us back into the infancy narrative of Matthew. The account of how Jesus begins his journey to become one with us, is powerfully told as a journey of Jesus' entering into the journey of his people, with the flight into Egypt and the horrible slaughter of the innocent children. This very difficult scene is important for us to reflect upon as we imagine the unborn and the newly born who are so unjustly deprived of dignity and life today.

On December 29th, we enter into the story of the Presentation in the Temple, and where we meet Simeon. He and Anna are the last of our prophets that seem to step into the pages of the New Testament. Their faithfulness and hopeful expectation are signs for us of who this child will become for us.

This week we keep asking for the grace to celebrate his coming among us. Each of us can keep growing in a sense of freedom and joy over the gift we have been given to know God's love for us and presence with us more deeply. It is a week of gratitude.

However, if our celebration of the days before Christmas and Christmas Day itself were busy or even difficult, then this can be a week of recovery and added time to let Our Lord come into our lives where we need him to come.

Make use of the other resources we offer here, on the left side of this page, or on the site index.

Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice!