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Liturgy: The Church's Spirituality
Bruce T. Morrill, S.J.
THE CHRISTMAS SEASON
SINGING AN OCTAVE AND MORE
In celebrating the most profound, fundamental mysteries
of the faith, Christians have repeatedly come to realize that one
day simply will not do—not even one day per week. As
we have noted earlier in this series of short essays, the original
feast of the Church is Sunday, the Lord’s Day, the Day of the
Resurrection, celebrated every eighth day as a sign of the New Creation
God is yet bringing about in Christ. But even such a wonderful
day, such a weekly proclamation of the world’s redemption in
the Crucified and Risen One, eventually proved inadequate to the
depths of joy and wonder believers experienced through participation
in the paschal mystery. Thus Easter arose as an annual feast
and by the fourth century was widely celebrated as an octave of
eight days, only to be expanded into a week of weeks (forty-nine
days) reaching to Pentecost. In the seventh century Pentecost
also received its own octave, a week for immersing those who were
baptized on the feast of the Holy Spirit into the mysteries of
the
faith they now professed.
As devotion to Christmas grew through the centuries
the Church came to celebrate an octave day of this feast, dedicating
the first of January to honor the Mother of God (the oldest Marian
feast on the Roman calendar). The reform of the liturgy mandated
by Vatican II has brought about a renewal of this feast, as well
as an enhanced celebration of the days of Christmas within the octave.
On the Sunday within the octave (or December 30th, if Christmas
itself falls on a Sunday) the Church celebrates the Holy Family
as a model for all Christian families. While the prayers of
the Mass for that day elaborate upon that theme, the Gospel passages
over the three-year liturgical cycle offer the few stories we actually
have about the Holy Family. In Year A comes the account
of the flight to Egypt; in Year B, the presentation in the temple;
and in Year C, the finding of the boy Jesus in the temple.
Is it not remarkable—indeed, at once profoundly
challenging and yet consoling—that in this day and age one
of the few images we have of the Holy Family is as refugees.
What help and encouragement this image must bring to our brothers
and sisters who at this very moment flee the scourges of war in
so many places around our planet or languish in refugee camps, hoping
for a home. What pause that should give us who enjoy the safety
of citizenship in free countries, what conviction our celebration
of this Christmas feast should give us to advocate here and now
for all who suffer and flee from political persecution. Not
for nothing does our Holy Father Pope John Paul II continuously
call all of us in the Church to lives of solidarity with the oppressed. The
images of the Holy Family in Years B and C are no less prophetic
to us in these modern times, to us who live in societies that marginalize
the devout practice of religious traditions and fail to honor the
wisdom that God is yet revealing through the mouths of children.
Beyond the Octave of Christmas, twelve days after
the "First Day of Christmas," comes the Feast of the Epiphany
on January 6th. From the repertoire of carols we sing "Brightest
and Best of the Stars of the Morning," "As with Gladness
Men of Old," and "Songs of Thankfulness and Praise," such
joy over the manifestation of Christ to all the nations sets us
on our own journey through another liturgical year with hearts grateful
for the gift of faith and eyes watchful for moments when the Christ
comes to us in the poor, the hungry, the naked, the homeless—the
stranger who turns out to be our star.
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