Nativitas Consumptoris et Nativitas Vera ― Consumer Christmas and True Christmas

Laudetur Iesus Christus.
Praised be Jesus Christ.

In most Christian liturgical calendars, we are now deep into the Advent season. The first Sunday of Advent fell on Nov. 30 this year, and the priests of our Archdiocese all had a similar message to faithful that were gathered in their churches:

“The new liturgical year has begun. Prepare the Way of the Lord.”

In the course of explaining what this means, the pastors of the city likely warned their congregations against “consumer Christmas”. Against getting carried away by the commercial aspects and indulgence of the season. And instead, paying attention to our spiritual well-being (whenever we can in this busy time). And extending our blessings and gifts to the others in the community besides our friends and families, especially the less fortunate. Et cetera, etc. Even though a good chunk of their audience is probably headed straight to the mall after mass, destined to forget what Fr. Whoever said earlier. Good thing that the message is repeatedly hammered home for a few Sundays in a row. And if they still didn't get it, the same message awaits their consideration next year.

I got extra servings of the Advent homilies and reflections this year, going to a meditation retreat and finding time with a spiritual director. Coming to an understanding of the deep theology and narratives around our Lord's birth made me even more upset at its commercialization.

This “consumer Christmas” and its counterpart the “spiritual Christmas” seem to lie at opposing ends of this most wonderful time of year. So far apart that I'm amazed the same term is used to describe them. The first extreme describes superficial indulgence with other superficial indulgers, complete with overt displays of wealth and gluttony. The second extreme feels like the typical Catholic self-flaggellation, applied to a time where most of us desperately need something to be joyous about. The experience for most with a Christian background has been somewhere in the middle, always shifting as they shuffle around from church to mall, then dinner to party, etc.

I suppose they share a common theme - desire and anticipating its coming fulfillment.

A kid complaining to friends saying “If my Mom doesn't buy me an Okama Gamesphere this Christmas, she's a fkin bitch.” doesn't exactly have the same vibe as a choir singing “O come, thou Wisdom born in heaven's height / Come peacefully, thy peoples set aright”. But they say the same thing: “There is something important that I don't have, and I yearn for it”. Be it the lack of a gaming console and its novel digital experiences or the lack of meaningful relief against spiritual despair in this broken world we inhabit.

Festum Sancta ― The Sacred Feast

Quia viderunt oculi mei salutare tuum
Lumen ad revelationem gentium

For my eyes have seen your salvation
A light for revelation to the Gentiles

Many concepts in Catholicism can be found stacked together or overlapping in practice, thanks to two millennia of history. With the most significant rituals and concepts represented by several theological layers, often paradoxical. The eucharistic ritual in mass shows Christ as a sacrificial victim but also the one performing the sacrifice of Himself, as the priest here moves “in persona Christi” (personifying Christ). We believe in an ever-living God (Deus sempiterne) who died (Mors mortem superavit / His death conquered Death). The familiar Christmas story depicts an almighty God arriving to rule us. Yet this Lord arrives as a weak newborn child born in a smelly stable to refugee parents.

Well, this faith is also one of transformation. And that tiny light, incomprehensible to the shadows, would grow strong enough to penetrate the deepest darkness and change this world.

Cosmic Revolution

Roráte caéli désuper,
et núbes plúant jústum

Let justice descend, you heavens, like dew from above,
like gentle rain let the clouds drop it down

The theology around the nature of Christ's divinity has been contentious since the start of this entire religion. The mere idea of having a “man-shaped God” is already deep sacrilege for our Abrahamic cousins (Jews and Muslims being strict monotheists). But for Catholics, the event of the Incarnation (God becoming flesh, from Latin: “caro/carnis”) is at the core of our faith. So much so that the traditionalists normally bow at mention of the event when reciting the Creed in mass (during “Et incarnátus est de Spíritu Sancto ex María vírgine, et homo factus est.”). Christmas mass has us pausing, getting out the kneelers, and then genuflecting at those phrases (then pausing and standing again to resume).

Why so important? Because as I understand it, the Incarnation lies at the heart of a cosmic revolution. The messiah, the Prince who was promised, is returning. He will arrive and inaugurate a new Kingdom. The corrupt ways of this world are no longer the true authority over our lives, now that the just and peaceful ways of the Kingdom are here.

In short, God promised a renewal, and that renewal is almost here. Humanity is then called to question their ways upon seeing the news. Do we stay loyal to the unjust and brutal “old regime”? Are we willing to abandon the old ways for the “new regime”, even if we suffer while doing so? Even if the choice is clear, making the right decision can be quite painful. To the faithful, it's the start of our liturgical year - another chance to turn from darkness and face the light, even when it hurts.

Massacre of the Innocents

Ecce cívitas Sáncti fácta est desérta:
Síon desérta fácta est, Jerúsalem desoláta est:
dómus sanctificatiónis túæ et glóriæ túæ,
ubi laudavérunt te pátres nóstri

Thy holy city is a wilderness,
Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation:
our holy and our beautiful house,
where our fathers praised thee

Like many tales around political revolutions, the “boots on the ground” narrative of the Holy Family's “Flight into Egypt” has a bloody background. Then, as now, the Holy Land was an imperial frontier at the crossroads of continents. Provincia Iudaea was a Roman province ruled locally by Jewish client kings. Rebellions and unrest were common in this province. Aside from the typical disgrace of being ruled by a foreign power, the monotheist Jews found the demands of the Roman imperial cult to be an even worse insult. They could never worship the Emperor as a living God beside the One True God. Rebellion was really the only option for them, and they exercised it frequently. Rome responded each time with more force (as usual). This land is where our Lord was to set foot.

The Holy Family formed under immediate threats. After our Lord's birth, they were no longer welcome in their hometowns. The mother at grave risk of being stoned to death due to local laws regarding adultery. The child at grave risk due to King Herod of Judea's mad policy of killing infants that fit his description. The King heard about scholars from the East visiting Jerusalem and saying something odd. They were looking for a recently-born King of the Jews, and they followed star charts to find Him. Being the current (and paranoid) King of the Jews, Herod tried to get the location of this potential competitor to the throne. Eventually, the King orders all infant boys in Bethlehem to be executed. Among all this, St. Joseph did everything in his power to clear a path for his wife and child, while the world was ready and waiting to see them dead. So they fled to Egypt, only to return after King Herod was dead.

This episode, the “Massacre of the Innocents” can be seen as the old brutal regime refusing to accept its coming end, and responding in the only way it really knows: through immense and indiscriminate violence. When peaceful messengers arrive, the powers of this world are happy to bully, beat, imprison and kill them, as well as anyone who looks and speaks like them. We see the rigid and cruel ways of the world refusing to give ground to the graceful ways of the spirit.

But God promised a renewal, and that renewal is almost here. That old regime will eventually fail, its violent attack on its own people rendered useless once Herod dies. The Blessed Guardian succeeds in his mission. The Blessed Mother and the young Lord survive, and He begins his rule in earnest.

Court Gathering at the Stable

Víde Dómine afflictiónem pópuli túi,
et mítte quem missúrus es:
emítte Agnum dominatórem térræ,
de Pétra desérti ad móntem fíliæ Síon:
ut áuferat ípse júgum captivitátis nóstræ

Behold, O Lord, the affliction of thy people,
and send forth him whom thou wilt send;
send forth the Lamb, the ruler of the earth,
from Petra of the desert to the mount of the daughter of Zion:
that he may take away the yoke of our captivity

We saw the rigid and cruel ways of the world refuse to give ground to the spirit. But its refusal does not really matter, for a higher authority has arrived. Foreign scholars saw celestial signs of His arrival and hurried to see Him as emissaries (bearing expensive gifts, as ambassadors do). These wise men understood what the news meant and chose a side without hesitation.

The new King has arrived, and we do what He says. We no longer have to commit cruelties our governments want us to inflict on others. We no longer have to commit cruelties our neighbours want us to inflict on others. Most difficult of all: we no longer have to commit cruelties we ourselves want to inflict on others.

God promised a renewal, and that renewal is almost here. Though this promise of renewal will only be worth something if we ourselves are willing to be renewed. His presence is the present, but only those willing to turn from darkness will be capable of accepting this gift.

Via Nova, Vita Nova ― New Way, New Life

Ite in pace, glorificando vita vestra Dominum
Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life

Franciscus Pontifex

I'd like to take some words to reflect on the passing of Pope Francis. This will be the Catholic faithful's first Christmas without him. Furthermore, the Holy Father passed away during the Jubilee year, which is a long observance inviting us to reflect on the theme: “Pilgrims of Hope”.

The Open Path

From the late Holy Father's final Christmas Homily at St. Peter's Basilica (originally delivered in Italian):

With haste, then, let us set out to behold the Lord who is born for us, our hearts joyful and attentive, ready to meet him and then to bring hope to the way we live our daily lives. And this is our task: to bring hope into the different situations of life. For Christian hope is not a cinematic “happy ending” which we passively await, but rather, a promise, the Lord’s promise, to be welcomed here and now in our world of suffering and sighs. It is a summons not to tarry, to be kept back by our old habits, or to wallow in mediocrity or laziness. Hope calls us – as Saint Augustine would say – to be upset with things that are wrong and to find the courage to change them. Hope calls us to become pilgrims in search of truth, dreamers who never tire, women and men open to being challenged by God’s dream, which is of a new world where peace and justice reign.

It seems to be a very “Pope Francis” thing to do: respond to difficult situations by welcoming them and not denying them. Some know him as a man of gestures. Upon election, he walked in to the Apostolic Palace and refused to live like a king, staying in a more modest apartment nearby. Others know him as a man who reached out to the margins. He ruffled a lot of traditionalist feathers with a welcoming attitude to homosexuals and other groups shunned by devout Catholics. I see him as someone who wanted to keep an open path to the light so that all the faithful and faithful-to-be can traverse it. ALL of them. No exceptions. This was a man who had seriously hoped for Hell to be an empty place. A pastor who does not want to see a single sheep left behind.

I believe it's fitting that Pope Francis got to inaugurate a year-long observation centred around pilgrimage. A pilgrimage is an image of faith in action. Travelling to a spiritual destination, temporarily leaving behind material and earthly concerns. Travelling with a heightened spiritual sense and focusing on greater reflection and contemplation, instead of the usual pleasures of vacation.

But a pilgrimage to new heights is only possible when the path is open. A living understanding of the Word is only possible when the mind is open. Taking action to help one's neighbours is only possible when the heart and hands are open. And that openness is what I'll remember the Holy Father for.

Requiescat in pace.
May he rest in peace.

R. J. Salvador
Homo Torontonensis
Toronto Man

d. XVIII m. Decembris MMXXV
Feria quinta, hebdomada tertia Adventus
Thursday of the third week of Advent

R. J. is a software engie who grew up in Toronto and returned to spirituality during the darkness of the recent plague. He is now trying to get back in the coding game, while playinig music, learning Latin, and scribbling about modernity and traditionalism at https://nihilumcomputabitur.substack.com.