About the only thing born anew this time of year in late capitalist societies is consumerism. My typical response to "What do you want for Christmas?" is, "For it to be over." What I mean by that is that I want secular Christmas, which runs concurrently with Advent, to be over and done.
I enjoy celebrating Christmas after all the hoopla has died down and it's actually Christmas. I love the week between Christmas Day and New Years. I love St Stephen, St John the Evangelist, Holy Innocents, Thomas a Becket, Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God, etc., playing games, reading books, watching movies, eating good food, thinking about the New Year. I am no Scrooge. I actually love Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. It is a deeply Christian book.
This year, I made it almost to the Third Sunday of Advent before realizing I've had enough already. This is pretty good for me. I have been fascinated this year by the fact that Padre Pio's favorite liturgical season was Advent (for a short treatment of this, see "Padre Pio and Advent: A Journey of Renewal and Grace"). Of course, he lived in a Capuchin monastery, but still, his advice given in some letters is most helpful.
Here is a late Friday traditio that, I believe, captures well the spirit of this season. The Kinks' "Father Christmas":
In any case, here's to those who wait in quiet expectation, preparing their hearts to once again not merely celebrate, but experience the great mystery of the Incarnation, those and who ponder this great mystery in their hearts. The mystery of Christ, "hidden from ages and from generations past," we read in Colossians, and has now "been manifested to his holy ones... Christ in you, the hope for glory" (Col 1:26-27).
As for the rest, as John Calvin put it: "The human heart is a perpetual idol factory." For the Latinists, who are, rightly, suspicious of translations- from the 1559 definitive edition: hominis ingenium perpetuam, ut ita loquar, esse idolorum fabricam (Institutes I.11.8). "Man's genius, so to speak, is to perpetually make idols."
Kwanshanuakkhmasdinosaurias- a photo from my walk this morning
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