Thoughts About The Sundays After Christmas

Today is now the fourth Sunday since Christmas Day, the third in this Year of Our Lord 2026. 

We've left the 12 Days of Christmas behind us. Ideally we did not fall into the Christmas "one and done" trap that our secular world seems to set for us each year. But, still, even if we held on to our Christmas Spirit, it may have waned or be waning at this point. It's perfectly natural, of course, this waning.

Indeed, people have spoken of the gradual "waning" of the memory of loved ones. We're not talking about the loss of mental acuity that some old ones experience. Rather it's the fading of the ability to recollect the sight and sound of a deceased loved one. 

A particularly stark and disturbing example might be husbands who have difficulty picturing their deceased wives or "hearing" the sound of their voice after some years, in extreme cases, even months. The Catholic writer Walker Percy addresses this in one of his novels. (I don't recall which, but do remember being quite taken by the description.) Or perhaps some of us with deceased parents or siblings have this experience.

On the other hand, this may not be true for all of us, present company included. We somehow are blessed with the ability to recall our deceased loved ones in surprising detail. This includes their appearance (without benefit of photos), the sound of their voice - with all its inflections - the way they walked, etc.

While memories of our recently past Christmas don't approach the profound depth of that of loved ones, maybe they can and should. Simply put, Christmas doesn't have to be, or perhaps ought not be, something that comes and goes, leaving no trace. 

We're not talking about the externals here - like those who keep a Christmas tree up and some decorations up all year round. (A loved one falls into this category.) Perhaps nothing wrong with this, but it's more a sentimental thing, a desire to hold on to certain visual incitements of certain pleasant feelings. 

Feelings come and go. But Christmas is forever.

So as the year progresses, we might recall the Incarnation and the Birth of Christ from time to time. And with that recollection, it would be natural to extend our thoughts to what it meant for this weary world of ours. 

One concept that was taught clearly to us fledgling Catholics in the years before Vatican II was that of the Gates of Heaven being opened again. (Do they still teach this now or is it too "old school" for our modernist leaership?) It went something like this:

Adam and Eve's disobedience resulted in their being expelled from the Garden. No one could enter it after this. Sin had made Paradise inaccessible. Christ died to make appropriate reparation to the Father for this Original Sin and for all our personal sins. And upon His death, with that reparation accomplished, the Gates of Heaven were thus opened.

And, of course, all that was made possible by Our Lord condescending to become one of us. His human nature united with His Divine nature at the Annunciation, Mary said "Be it done unto me according to thy word: to the angel Gabriel. She conceived of the Holy Spirit. And then, after her time had come, she gave birth to Our Lord in the cave in Bethlehem. 

Jesus was thus manifested to this weary world for the first time on that first Christmas.

If we embed this story deeply into our minds and hearts, we can carry Christmas with us throughout the rest of the year. Christmas will not fade only to be revived again on December 25th, if, by the grace of God, we are still here on earth.

Isn't this a good idea, this keeping Christmas alive and well within our Interior Lives all the time? 

If you agree, then this Sunday will provide sufficient time and thus the ideal opportunity to consider all this and make it our own.

 

Happy Sunday!