But Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart. Luke 2:19
Christ is Born! Glorify Him!
On December 13, I was listening to a radio station that was playing non-stop Christmas music when the two DJs started discussing whether it was too late to put up Christmas decorations. One of them, “well, there are only twelve days of Christmas left, so yes, it is too late.” To which I thought, well, there are twelve days until Christmas (at that point), then we Orthodox celebrate for twelve more days until the feast of Theophany. Twenty-four days of decorations is worth doing.
In another year, on Christmas night, as we sat by the Christmas tree listening to Christmas music around 11:45 p.m., the radio host announced, “there is only fifteen more minutes of Christmas remaining, we will return to regular programming in fifteen minutes.” And sure enough, the non-stop Christmas music that had been playing since November 1 came to a screeching halt at 12:01 a.m. on December 26. Undoubtedly, there are probably many people who have already taken down their Christmas decorations. This is one of the things I don’t like about how we celebrate Christmas in contemporary America. We rush it in, and we rush it out. From Labor Day there are Christmas sales. Trees are up right after Halloween. We are inundated with Christmas music before Thanksgiving, which has all but disappeared. There are non-stop Christmas parties during Advent, which is supposed to be a solemn season of preparation. And once Christmas comes, it’s suddenly all over.
In the Orthodox Church, we celebrate the Lord’s Nativity for eight days, from December 25-December 31. That means for all eight days, we sing the hymns of the Lord’s Nativity. On January 1, we commemorate the Circumcision of Christ and His naming (we also celebrate St. Basil), and from January 2-5, we have a brief period of Pre-Theophany, and then the feast of Theophany is celebrated from January 6-14. The feasts of the Nativity and Theophany are connected, in that the Nativity celebrates the Incarnation of the Son of God in the flesh and Theophany celebrates the manifestation (revelation) of the Holy Trinity. We still have a lot of celebration left!
Outside of the Nativity season, in the Orthodox Church, we are still constantly celebrating this feast. At every Divine Liturgy, when the priest goes to prepare the Holy Gifts, the first prayer he offers is a hymn from the Nativity:
Prepare O Bethlehem, Eden is opened to all. Adorn yourself O Ephratha, for in the cave the Tree of Life has blossomed forth from the Virgin. Her womb has been revealed as a noetic paradise which contains the divine seed. If we partake of It, we shall live. If not, we shall die as Adam. Christ is born, restoring the image that had fallen. (Trans. by Narthex Press, Liturgikon)
Today’s Scripture verse from Luke 2, reminds us that Mary kept all the things that happened—the annunciation by the angel, the miraculous birth of Christ, the adoration of shepherds and worship by Magi—in her heart. She pondered on them. Perhaps she didn’t fully understand them. But she thought about them. She let them define her.
As we move past Christmas, I hope that we will keep some thoughts about the holiday in our hearts and ponder them. Was there one moment of awe and wonder? Perhaps you looked up at the stars and thought about the star two thousand years ago. Perhaps you heard the Nativity story and something struck a different chord. Perhaps you received a gift that made you think. Or perhaps you reached out to someone you hadn’t talked to in a while. When we have moments where we feel touched by God, we need to hold them fast in our hearts and ponder on them. We need to allow ourselves to be inspired by them. We need to allow God to define us through them.
Finally, at Christmas time, we go out of our way to do things, such as have people over for dinner, reach out to people we haven’t heard from in a while, buy gifts for people who mean a lot to us, send cards to let others know how we are doing and we call people who are important in our lives. These are things we should be doing throughout the year, not just saving until Christmas. These are not things we should put away with our decorations until next year.
Keep the spirit of Christmas alive throughout the year in your thoughts and actions. And as for now, we’ve got some celebrating to do. There are still many days left in this season!
Working signs of old the Master saved the people, replacing fluid waves of the sea with dry land. Now born of a Maid by His own will, He has made passable a way to heaven. Him, in essence equal to mankind and the Father, we glorify. (Katavasias of Christmas, Iambic, Trans. by Fr. Seraphim Dedes)
Make the spirit of Christmas last throughout the year!
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The Revised Standard Version of the Bible is copyrighted 1946, 1952, 1971, and 1973 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. and used by permission. From the Online Chapel of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.
