I don’t know that we’ve entirely embraced the myriad of changes that 2020 has elicited. However, I think we’re doing a decent enough job navigating our ‘new world’ for the most part. But one thing that strikes me is this: COVID cropped up at a time in which we were—aside from Easter—about to enter a stretch wherein the activities and functions of the church would occur at a slower pace. This isn’t to say that we wouldn’t still have had events and gatherings, but they wouldn’t have happened with the frequency of a normal year. So, we adapted, we stayed in, and we hunkered down to protect ourselves without feeling like we’d ‘missed’ too much. Of course, we have missed a great deal in other areas of our lives—vacations, etc—but the church has done a fairly decent job of remaining connected and executing worship well.
But the holidays are upon us. Soon, Hallow-Thanks-Mas will come. Usually, we host an open house for trick or treaters. Usually, we host a Thanksgiving dinner for football watchers and turkey eaters. Usually, we dress up the Nave for Advent and then again for Christmas. As with everything else, this year is anything but ‘usual’.
We’re going to miss quite a bit of what we would typically experience…at least I will. I’ll miss seeing the 100-200 people come in costume and fellowship in our Parish Hall’s Halloween House; I’ll miss cooking for everyone and wearing my Dallas Cowboys jersey to Church. I’ll miss seeing fifty poinsettias surround the altar and all the accoutrements alongside.
But I’m wondering if we haven’t ‘missed’ something in prior years that perhaps will be able to be seen this year, and it’s this: Have we missed a bit of the meaning behind these holidays and that for which they stand?
Halloween precedes All Saints’ Day—a day in which we remember those who walked before us, who taught us by their actions and words how to be better versions of ourselves. We make a big deal of it, marching in to fun tunes and flying kites, making banners and having potlucks. So much goes into the planning of the day that sometimes I miss the meaning of the day: To give homage to the Saints, and to pray to God that I can join them one day after my work is done. This year gives us the opportunity to focus on that, because we can’t do the big show.
Thanksgiving—the only ‘secular’ holiday that gets its own Collect of the Day (page 246, BCP)—stands as a day for us to come together, uniting us in solidarity and culture, all being thankful for the blessings of God’s creation. We sometimes forget that component amidst the whirlwind of cooking, cleaning, planning, traveling, and revelry. This year gives us the opportunity to focus on that—the importance of the day and what it means, because we still have much for which to be thankful. We can also look at past years’ holidays and be thankful for the family and friends that surrounded us then; maybe that will prompt us to complain a bit less about the logistics in the coming years, being truly thankful for the opportunity to be together.
And then there’s Advent and Christmas. Talk about a month of stressful preparation and setup. We can’t decorate this year per our normal. We may not be able to hold the sacred service of Midnight Mass—and even if we do, it won’t look the same or be set up the same. The beauty of the season may have to be seen for what it really is, aside from the trappings: The anticipation and glorification of Jesus Christ’s Incarnation. While it may ‘look’ different, perhaps we will be able to engage this season fully, without the distraction of the stuff we have to do to make it beautiful. In reality, it already is.
I’m going to miss the holidays as we’ve previously known them. I’ll miss the costumes, the community dinner, and the church looking like the North Pole. I love all of it. But instead of allowing the absence of those moments to negatively impact our sense of joy, we should dig deeper and pay closer attention to what the holidays really are: Holy-days. I wish us all the most joyous of Holydays, ones wherein we can live in to the depth of our faith and be truly thankful for that which we have, as well as that which we are currently missing. If we do this, then perhaps next year (hopefully) when things turn toward a new normal, we can remember the reason for these seasons and appreciate them all the more—having spent time diving into the meaning without the logistics. That way, when the logistics return, we’re ready to fully immerse in both—the look and feel of the holidays, which we now know as Holydays.
Happy Holydays, my friends…
Faithfully,
Fr. Sean+