This weekend devout time and secular time coincide, though for different reasons. For the devout in the faith, after all the preparation of Advent, joy and gladness will have blossomed in the celebration of the birth of Christ. For the secular minded, food and drink and self-indulgence in a time of covid, as well as a celebration of family, will have come to the fore.
The coinciding of these times will come to an end by next weekend. The devout in the faith will still have five days to take in the enormity of Christmas, before the times move on to Epiphany. The secular mind and heart will be thinking about and planning next year's holiday, as the daily papers and tv ads are filled with glamorous and sun-filled destinations for next year's summer vacation.
And these two mind-sets, the devout and the secular, will not meet again until this time next year. Both have their rhythms. For the secular, the rest of the year is taken up by planning for the summer holiday, and the fulfilment of the same. There is a minor diversion for the chocolate feast of Easter to welcome spring, before summer holidays come more forcefully to mind the nearer to summer we are. And come September, minds and hearts turn to planning for Christmas, this becoming more insistent once Hallowe'en- a minor diversion- is over. For the devout, times of reflection, preparation and stripping back to essentials (Advent and Lent) will be followed by seasons of joy (Christmas, Easter) and quieter periods of learning and consolidation (Epiphany, Trinity).
Both are rich in planning and execution, anticipation and fulfilment, cost and satisfaction. And truth to tell, the boundaries between these two visions is often blurred. Covid times have dented the application of the the secular model- holidays cancelled, families unable to meet; efforts are redoubled to make it work. Human effort. In the devout, much, most of the work is divine; we surrender to a movement of God. Let each find joy as they can.
No comments:
Post a Comment