Adopting a
“customer
service” point of view this past Sunday, when I announced
“Tuesday of this week, January 1st, is a Holy Day of
Obligation” and then listed the times for the masses, I noticed a
muted but audible moan rumbling through the congregation. I guess the
thought of having to go to church again on New Year’s Day was just a bit
too much. Perhaps those who moaned were expressing the belief of many
others that making New Year’s Day a holy day of obligation
“penalizes”
Catholics.
From my own experience, I know
very well the rationale and perhaps you’ve thought it yourselves or even have
heard your kids say it:
“Gosh, it’s freezing cold out
there.” What about this one:
“Going to church is no problem
for the priests. They love mass and have to be there anyway.” Or,
“Heck, I’ve already gone to church three times in the past nine
days alone. This will make four times in ten days. This better guarantee
me a front-row seat in heaven!”
Undoubtedly, this holy day of
obligation can seem like a penalty, especially if people don’t know
and understand what this holy day is all about. Maybe you feel like
you’re
sitting in the penalty box right now!
And so, to get some feedback
about just what people in the congregation knew, I took an entirely
unscientific poll of last Sunday’s church-going public. As they left
church, I asked some parishioners,
“Why is New Year’s Day a holy
day of obligation?”
Some responses revealed some
really creative thinking. Several parishioners opined:
“It’s to get people to start the new
year off on the right foot. You know, in sort of a holy way.” In
contrast, some others said:
“It’s to make sure people don’t
misbehave too much on New Year’s Eve. You know, it gets them home
earlier than they otherwise would because they know they have to get up
and go to church.”
But, the lion’s share of the church-going
public polled—and especially the teenagers—said,
“Uh, I don’t
know.”
From a customer service point of
view, if people don’t know what it is that they’re supposed to be
celebrating, then what motive is there to celebrate, let alone to come
to church to celebrate? No wonder the lack
of enthusiasm and
“long faces” on so many people! Or, could it
be the residual hangover from too much partying last evening?
Today, I want to overview briefly
why today is a holy day of obligation. Anything longer than
“brief” would be to
“double penalize” you and I
promise I won’t do that. I can’t guarantee that my explanation will
motivate you to love having to go to church on New Year’s Day. But, I
can guarantee at a minimum that you’ll leave knowing something you didn’t know
when you came to church today. At the
least, next time you’re polled, you’ll have the correct answer.
The response several parishioners
made about
“starting off the New Year on the right foot…in a holy
way” has much to do with New Year’s Day being the equivalent of a
secular holy day of obligation. Think about it: thousands of people
gleefully celebrate the coming of the New Year. They brave the cold and
darkness to attend the
“ball drop” at Times’ Square in New
York or firework displays to be found in cities throughout the world. They travel to
participate in the Mummers and Rose Bowl Parades. And, if watching the
college football bowl games on television and grazing for hours at the
hors d’oeuvres table isn’t an annual liturgy, then nothing is.
At the same time, New Year’s
Day isn’t just another day on the calendar but marks new beginnings, a
day for resolutions about daily life during the new year. Taking a
glance back at what has kept us from achieving the quality of life we
would have liked to have experienced last year, many resolve to create
conditions that will enable them to increase their quality of life. Many
people resolve to adopt more healthy lifestyles. Some people resolve to improve career
or leisure opportunities. Other people resolve to engage in self-improvement.
If you examine this approach to
New Years, it’s really a secular sacrament of penance as people
examine their conscience, confess their sins, promise to do penance, and
amend their lives…Amen.
But, that’s not why New Year’s
Day is a holy day of obligation for Catholics. In fact, this day was a
holy day of obligation hundreds of years before the Gregorian calendar
was instituted which made January 1st New Year’s Day as we know it.
For Catholics, New Year’s Day
took place nearly six weeks ago on the first Sunday of Advent when we
lit the first candle of the Advent wreath and opened the first door of
the Advent calendar. On that day, we resolved to prepare ourselves for
the birth of God’s only begotten Son, not only some two thousand years
ago in Bethlehem but also as God’s only begotten Son takes flesh today
in our hearts, in our homes, and in our world. That day was eight days
ago and makes today the “octave” of Christmas.
For the past seven days, we have
celebrated Christmas, focusing primarily upon the birth of Jesus Christ. But, on this the eighth day—reminiscent of the eighth day of Creation
when God rested—Catholics rest in order to contemplate the person who
made all of this possible that what Mary’s faith really means and
requires of us in our daily lives.
Mary was very young when the
archangel Gabriel
visited her, perhaps no more than fourteen years old. Imagine the
mystery, the doubt, and the fear Mary experienced by saying
“Yes”
to Gabriel. Imagine, too, the pain Mary’s
“Yes” meant
as she watched her son unfairly and unjustly executed. Through all of
this, Mary did not flinch but held to her abiding belief that everything
coming her way was of God’s doing. And, rather than demand
explanations or blame God when things didn’t go quite the way Mary had
hoped, instead she
“treasured all of these things in her
heart,” as today’s Gospel tells us.
For this reason, Catholics revere
Mary as the
“New Eve” and celebrate this holy day to honor her
as “Mother of God.”
Mary’s generosity made it possible for
you and for me to be made anew or, as St. Paul said in today’s
epistle, to be blessed as
“adopted children of God.”
No longer
are we slaves to the power of sin and death, but co-heirs of God’s
kingdom.
As Catholics, we pause and rest
today—this octave of Christmas—to contemplate Mary, the Mother of
God. For many, today is nothing more than a secular holiday but, for
Catholics, it is a holy day...and one of
“obligation.”
It provides an opportunity to rest from all
of the
“busyness” of our daily lives and to contemplate them
from the perspective of faith, especially the perspective illuminated by
Mary’s unconditional
“Yes” to God and her willingness to
look at everything in her life as being of God’s doing. Mary’s
“Yes” to the
archangel Gabriel’s troubling message made it
possible for God to become human, to live among us, and to show us the
pathway to the source of true and abiding peace and joy.
Our
“Yes” accomplishes
much of the same as we invite God to be incarnate in our hearts, in our
homes, and in our world. The temptation is not to believe that God
invites us to serve as His voice, ears, and hands for the people who
fill our daily lives. Yet, that is what we are when we say
“Yes” and the
God’s Word is again made flesh as it dwells in us. Today, we
ponder the glory to which God has called us along with Mary, the Mother
of God.