Catholic and Enjoying It!
I was thumbing through an Evangelical gift catalog and came across two unusual Christmas tree ornaments:
and
I’m a little ambivalent about that kind of decoration, but I’m curious what your take on them is.
Yeah, me too. It’s an aesthetic judgment, of course, not a theological one, so de gustibus. Certainly, there’s something to be said for the waggish Catholic who says, “Keep Mass in Christmas”, which is what these ornaments, in effect do (though an Evangelical would be surprised to hear that). Being reminded that Christmas is, theologically speaking, not a KODAK Moment but the spiritual equivalent of D-Day, when the Son stormed the beaches of Satanically-occupied earth under heavy fire and began the long struggle to free us from bondage that would culminate in his crucifixion? Not a bad thing, I think. And a good sort of scandal to give our secular culture which doesn’t like these upsetting aspects of the Faith. So props for that. According to the “glass half full” principle, I think Catholics should cheer that Evangelicals (who used to view the use of images as dangerously Romish) are now quite at home with the notion and are experimenting in interesting ways here.
On the other hand, it seems to me that the Church has real wisdom in setting aside certain moments for feasting and others for fasting and that jumbling them up is probably not wise. These decorations are, at the end of the day, Lenten, not Christmas, emphases and there is something… discordant, at least if you tried to import it into say, a Christmas tree in a sanctuary. People can and should be encouraged to do what suits their taste at home. As I say, de gustibus. But I think a *Catholic parish* would be ill advised to drag Lent into the Christmas season with these ornaments. There’s a time and a place for that.
Just my two cents.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In