Today is January 3 and it's the ninth day of Christmas. One of the many things I love about being Catholic is the liturgical calendar. If a holiday is important enough to be a holiday, then it is important enough to be a season. So we celebrate the two major holidays, Easter and Christmas, for weeks not days.
I am writing this early on Sunday morning next to my Christmas tree with it's beautiful colored lights and wonderful assortment of ornaments that tell the story of my children's childhood. All of the Christmas decorations are still up and will remain that way for a while. In a couple of hours my family and I will go to mass. The church will still be decorated with Christmas trees and the music will still be from the Christmas section of the hymnal. And I love it.
Why? Why keep celebrating? It takes this much time to fully appreciate this gift. And everything about the amazing God who loved us so much to send his only son to save us. To save us from our sinful world and our own sinful tendencies. You cannot fully appreciate and celebrate what this means, what Mary and Joseph and Jesus went through in those early years in a one day celebration. It takes weeks to fully tell the story. It's a story and gift that is impossible for us to really understand but we spend weeks every year retelling the story, trying to appreciate it at least a little more each year. Trying to appreciate that fact that nothing we have ever done or ever could do make us worthy of the love and mercy God has shown us in giving us the gift of his son. So I will continue to enjoy the decorations and continue to reflect on the greatest gift given to the world. And I will probably be among the last to wish you Merry Christmas and to encourage to take a moment to appreciate this season and all it means just one more time before you move on to fully embrace 2016.
