Symbols of the Season: The Christmas Pilgrimage
Finding Christ in the midst of all the hustle and bustle
This Advent and Christmas season has been bittersweet for me and my family. My mother-in-law passed on into eternal life on Gaudete Sunday, and we buried her on Friday, December 20. She was elderly and had been sick for many years, but it was still not easy to sit vigil with her during the last weeks of her life, as she went through her final descent. She lived with us for almost 30 years and was a big part of our lives.
But, it has been a consolation to find out that it is on Christmas Day that many souls are released from Purgatory. In his work The Glories of Mary, St. Alphonsus Ligouri wrote “By the intercession of the Holy Virgin many souls are saved, especially on the feast of her Son’s birth, as she pleads for the salvation of all.”
We will keep St. Alphonsus’ words in mind this year and pray that my mother-in-law is among those souls who ascend into heaven on Christmas Day.
Because of this event, I have not been able to write a new Symbols of the Season article for December so instead, I decided to repost my very first published article. I wrote it way back in 2012 and it appeared in the October edition of The Sower (now The Catechetical Review). It’s still the way I think of Advent and Christmas, and all the hustle and bustle involved in these seasons.
The Christmas Pilgrimage
Amid all the hustle and bustle of Christmas preparations normal to our culture these days, it is easy to be swept up into a seemingly endless list of tasks. Everything from packing and traveling to hosting guests and dealing with varying family dynamics, not to mention the added expense of presents and charitable donations, can all combine to make us overwhelmed and exhausted. Where, we might wonder, is Christ in all of this? How can we hope to truly join in the Advent preparations of getting ready in heart, mind and soul for the birth of Christ when we have so many additional demands on us? Maybe we simply wish to leave it all behind, to withdraw from the world and spend Advent and Christmas in prayerful retreat. While there is no doubt that it is always a challenge to keep Him in the center of our Christmas activities in the midst of an increasingly secular society, perhaps what we need more than a change of location or activities is a change of perspective.
The Three Comings of Christ
St. Bernard of Clairvaux wrote that, in reality, we can think of three comings of Christ. The first appeared in the stable at Bethlehem, over 2,000 years ago. The second Coming will take place in the future, at a time only known to God, when Christ will return in glory and might. But the third coming is going on right now. It is the time in between the first and second Comings, called a “hidden, intermediate coming,” when “only the elect see the Lord.” St. Bernard says that in this third coming, Christ comes “in spirit and in power.” There is a unique synthesis of activity between all three comings of the Lord. Particularly at Christmas, the activities we engage in (during the third coming) reflect the first coming while at the same time preparing us for the Final Coming of our Lord.
Unity in Movement
Let’s take a closer look at the unity between all three comings by looking at just one small aspect of the First Christmas - the theme of movement. We know that at the time of Christ’s birth, the world was on the move because “a decree went out from Emperor Agustus that all the world should be registered.” (Lk 2”1) Consequently, everyone went to their ancestral home to be counted in the first great census. We know that the inns were full, the roads were crowded, and most likely tempers were short, not to mention the ongoing threat of pickpockets and thieves. Because the point of the census was to determine how many people were in the Roman Empire for taxation purposes, we can assume that no one was very happy about having to leave their homes, spend their hard-earned money on food for the journey and lodging, plus deal with similarly unhappy crowds of people, just because the Emperor had decreed it. Does this scenario sound familiar?
Today, in our Christmas celebrations, we also return to our original households, to gather together as families again. This inevitably involves dealing with other large crowds of people also traveling to their homes. At Christmas, we are again a world on the move. Once again, the inns are full, airplane flights are expensive, and many people are not very happy to leave their homes “just because it’s Christmas” and we have to go see the family or the in-laws or the neighbors or whoever. Our movement today resembles that first Christmas.
Yet, if we look ahead at the Second Coming, all this movement makes sense. The Book of Revelation states that at the end of the age, there will once again be a great gathering, a collecting of all the faithful. Revelation says, “There was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.” (Rev.7:9) The theme of movement runs throughout Scripture. Abraham was called to leave his homeland. Moses had to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. Mary Magdalene had to leave the risen Christ to tell the apostles the Good News. The apostles had to leave off staring at the sky after Jesus’ ascension and get moving. Whenever God interact with us, one of the first things to happen is some type of movement.
A Sign of Conversion
But why is movement one of the hallmarks of interaction with God? The answer is simple: Movement is a sign of conversion. The exterior motion of our bodies from one place to another is supposed to coincide with an interior movement from sin to new life. This interior conversion results in an exterior movement, which in Scripture usually involves some type of evangelization and epiphany. In fact, this is the reason why people started going on pilgrimages centuries ago. Even the practice of praying the Stations of the Cross developed as a spiritual pilgrimage for those who unable to physically journey to the Holy Land.
The truth is, though, conversion very often works from the outside in, not from the inside out. After a stressful, busy December, we may not feel filled with the Holy Spirit as we prepare for the weeklong stay with the strange uncle or those difficult cousins. Yet, making the effort to go, despite the expense and the difficulties, is precisely the kind of movement Christians are called to make. It is this very type of movement that invites us into discipleship with Christ, because, taken together, all of these activities are formative, possibly even transformative. They assist us in turning away from ourselves, in overcoming our innate inertia, to focus on others. This continual turning leads to the goal of the Christian life; dying to ourselves and living for Christ. For example, spending time with difficult people helps us develop patience. Going to, even hosting, Christmas parties reminds us of the value of community. Visiting the sick and homebound to sing Christmas carols develops charity. Donating to the food pantry helps us learn mercy. Assisting with your child’s Nativity Play is passing on the Good News and teaches children that enacting the Christmas story is worth our time. Even buying gifts can help us develop compassion, as it gives us an opportunity to think about others and gift them things they not only need but would perhaps enjoy, to add a small sparkle of joy to their lives.
If we change our perspective a bit and look more deeply at our Christmas activities, we might find that Jesus is much closer than we think. If we allow them, these endless activities can prepare us for the coming of our Savior and focus our minds and heart more fully on the Babe of Bethlehem. For us then, the question is not “How can I avoid all this Christmas stuff?” but “How can I extend these practices of charity, mercy and compassion throughout the whole year?”
How can the Good News of Christ’s birth continue to make a difference to me once the Christmas lights have been taken down?
How do I keep moving?
Joining the Great Pilgrimage
This year, try to see all your extra activities and visits as pilgrimages, as offerings that look forward to the final great pilgrimage, to the last gathering in. Does that mean flights won’t be delayed and tempers won’t be short? Of course not! But that doesn’t matter. To paraphrase St. Teresa of Kolkata, “We don’t have to be successful, we just have to be faithful.” We simply believe the words of Jesus when he said, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” (Mt 25:37-40) In other words, we have to see our own pilgrimage in our Christmas activities and see our own movements as part of the greater pilgrimage of the Church to Christ. We have to get moving, so that, in the words of Charles Dickens, it may be said of us also, that we “know how to keep Christmas well.”
Wow! What a great read. I can definitely relate to the "movement" effect you mentioned! Spot on.