That's just about the most arrogant thing you can presume to do: keep Christ anywhere. Christ will be in Christmas or absent from it no matter how hard you try to you keep Him there. Christ doesn't bend to your will. He is where He has promised to be, and there's nothing you or anyone else can do to change that. So where is Christ? In the Mass, in the Divine Service, in the Lord's Supper.
Thanks to Mark for this article: http://atheism.about.com/od/christmasholidayseason/p/SecularChristma.htm
To de-secularize the season of Christmas, the writer proposes these actions:
· Put the Mass back in Christmas
· Restore Michaelmas
· Restore Candlemas
· Restore Childermas
· Restore the Feast of the Epiphany
· Restore the Advent season
· Restore gift-giving to the real Christmas season, which occurs after Christmas day
· Don't put up a Christmas tree until Christmas Eve — if at all
· Use Christmas as a day of contemplating Christ, not for engaging in commerce
Mass in Christmas? Check. Hope will have 3 distinct Divine Services celebrating the Nativity of Our Lord.
Michaelmas? Check. We celebrated it this year, albeit transferred to the Sunday before.
Candlemas? Check. It's coming: Feb 2. Join us for the Feast of the Purification of Mary and the Presentation of Our Lord.
Childermas? Check. The Feast of the Holy Innocents will be celebrated Dec 28.
Epiphany? Check. Jan 6, every year.
Advent? Check.
Keeping Christ in Christmas is silly at best, sinful at worst. Instead, keep yourself in Christ. Receive His Body and Blood as often as He gives you the opportunity.
2 comments:
Valid. Yet it is possible that Christians aren't being arrogant or presuming to bend Christ to their will when they express a desire to "keep Christ in Christmas." They may actually mean that they want to "keep themselves in Christ" (which, by the way, they are unable to do, as well). As the article points out, most have not heard of Michaelmas or Candlemas or Childermas and cannot be faulted for the church's failure to maintain these celebrations. As humble servants of the Word, pastors can lovingly teach and redirect Christians back to these festivals. Christians may not always adequately express themselves, but they may be attempting to say the same thing you are.
The point is Christ is there, whether people crusade to keep Him there or not. The only variable is whether you're there receiving him (not you, particularly, of course). And you're right: it's not just individual Christians who are at fault; the whole church bears culpability for jettisoning the Mass while "keeping Christ." You can't have one without the Other.
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