By The Reverend Dr Walter Hannam –
“There’s a lot of bad ‘isms’ floatin’ around this world, but one of the worst is commercial-ism! … Don’t care what Christmas stands for — just ‘Make a buck, make a buck!’” Thus spake Alfred the janitor in the 1947 movie Miracle on 34th Street.
Calling for the decommercialisation of Christmas has become part of popular culture ever since. “Let’s face it,” says Lucy van Pelt in 1965’s A Charlie Brown Christmas, “we all know that Christmas is a big commercial racket. It’s run by a big eastern syndicate, you know!”
Yet how to decommercialise Christmas seems as much of a problem — perhaps more of a problem — in 2023.
At St. Bartholomew’s Anglican Church at Dundas and Parliament Streets, our antidote to the problem is not to enter into the Big Eastern Syndicate’s Christmas season at all. We spend the traditional season of Advent awaiting the coming of Christmas — the Church’s feast of light that lasts for twelve days, from 25 December to 5 January.
As children many of us had Advent calendars, but how many knew that they symbolised something more than the number of days until we could open presents under the tree? For Christians Advent is important, because it helps us prepare to receive the One we believe to be the Light of the World.
Advent begins on the Sunday nearest the Feast of St. Andrew, the first disciple to follow Jesus, before anyone — including Andrew himself — really knew who he was. In the northern hemisphere, it corresponds with the shortening of the days; the shortest day of the year is December 21, the Feast of ‘doubting’ St Thomas, the ‘Apostle of Little Faith.’ Christmas Day falls soon after the days begin to lengthen.
That Advent and Christmas fall in this natural season which mirrors precisely the relation of the human mind to the Truth, which is its light. Just as our eyes must gradually become accustomed to the light of the sun before it can assist us with sight, we too can apprehend the truth only gradually. We must first accept that the truth isn’t ours to grasp, but we are its to enlighten. As it begins to dawn, and if we are willing to be lightened by it, the truth will conform us to Itself — conform us to reality as it is, not as we wish it were.
To gain this sort of patience is a difficult spiritual exercise, which is why Advent (and Christmas, in its turn) comes every year. The truth is never something we discover once and for all: it is new every morning, because it can never be exhausted. Like the light of the sun, we must be conformed to it anew each day — we can never throw open the bedroom curtains and gaze directly upon It, as though it were ours to manipulate.
If you are looking to overcome the commercialism of Christmas this year, we would love you to join us for part or all of our Advent journey. Each Sunday we read portions of Scripture in the order that the Church has read them for fifteen centuries; through this pattern of teaching, we receive a wisdom that is the gift of our ancient ancestors in the faith.
Early on the morning of Saturday December 9, we will celebrate the ‘Rorate’ Mass of Our Lady, a candlelight service at dawn in honour of the Motherhood of the Virgin Mary that dates to the eighth century. And on Saturday, 13 December we will celebrate the Feast of St. Lucy, the Advent saint of light par excellence. Each of these celebrations reveals a particular ‘beam’ of the Light we prepare to welcome at Christmas. What better way to spend the season of shortening days?
