Ain’t No Party Like a Catholic Party

It’s still Christmas suckers!

Believe it or not, Catholics prolong the feast of Christmas for days and days and days. It’s complicated but our Christmas season can be more than a whopping twenty days.

I know it’s hard to believe that Catholics know how to make a party last, especially in a culture that sees us as the straight-laced party poopers who impose rules on others and suck all the fun out of life.

But really, it would pay to think for a moment and ask yourself, “Why does our culture spend monumental amounts of energy and preparation for one day, but then trees are taken down, radios stop playing holiday music and the Christmas spirit disappears the day after Christmas?”

Our world just doesn’t know how to stay happy.

It knows how to give fleeting glimpses of happiness, it immerses us in short-lived periods of emotional highs but it does not know how to give us happiness that remains. Happiness that turns into lasting joy.

Basically, I think it’s because our world, despite its protestations to the contrary, really doesn’t know how to party.

I’m not talking about Beastie Boys parties:

or Liz Lemon parties:

I’m talking about preparing ourselves for the everlasting festivities, the eternal banquet and the rad party that will ensue after the resurrection of the dead.

“They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads.” (Isaiah 35:10) 

One of my sisters in the convent wants to be buried with a party horn in hand so at the moment of the resurrection she can be ready for the greatest shindig of all time.

This is why Christmas lasts so long in our liturgical season.

We need to be prepared to live the party that never ends.

So party on Catholics.

Party on.