Advent and Christmas and America

I don't recall what other families did in my town when I was growing up about Christmas decorations and celebrations. Of course I lived in the highly Catholic (maybe in name only) Northeast. But I don't recall a practice which is common in South Carolina-which is to have your Christmas tree taken down and on the curb by December 26th-if not before. (I have seen trees on the curb on Christmas day.) Protestant America celebrates Christmas from the day after Thanksgiving til about 10:00 AM (or maybe 6:00 PM) on Christmas day. Unfortunately, Catholic America is following the trend. When we get the liturgical year mixed up, we also get our theology messed up also. Catholic culture in this country (see related post below here) has become non-existant and by and large we have joined the Protestant-secular culture.

"Two Towers-the de-Christianization of America and a Plan for Renewal" (RequiemPress -of course) gives some reasons why this occurred:

On the back of the American dollar bill is found the motto novus ordo seclorum (a new secular order), confirming that in this country a secular order has been set in place. Since science and technology animate it, that secular order is strictly pragmatic. It seeks to create a society peopled by contented citizens. In 1853, for instance, the United States Democratic Review predicted that “within half a century, machinery will perform all work — automata will direct them. The only tasks of the human race will be to make love, study, and be happy.” In this country, then, individuals have been provided with practical opportunities to obtain unlimited wealth and to pursue personal comfort. In turn, the pursuit of wealth and comfort has led to rapid advancements in technology, the practical side of science.

Tocqueville pointed out that, in the United States, “every new way of getting wealth more quickly, every machine which lessens work, every means of diminishing the costs of production, every invention which makes pleasures easier orgreater, seems the most magnificent accomplishment of the human mind.”

In a very short span of time, an economic middle-class that desired increased wealth, material pleasure, and bodily comfort became a prominent cultural factor in American life. Tocqueville noted that “the passion for physical comfort is essentially a middle-class affair; it grows and spreads with that class and becomes preponderant with it.” He added that “the taste for physical well-being is not always exclusive, but it is general; and though all do not feel it in the same manner, yet it is felt by all. Everyone is preoccupied with caring for the slightest needs of the body and the trivial conveniences of life.”

The ever-expanding middle class soon discovered that expropriation of the natural resources of the North American continent gave it social influence and political power. Every technological invention and every step of growth in the local, regional, and national economies increased these two possibilities. Every leap forward in economic prosperity was a progressive advance in greater equality of conditions and its personal benefits — political power and social influence.

Unduly enamored with the power of equality of conditions, Catholic immigrants and their descendants readily transferred their allegiance from the paternalism of the institutional Church to the paternalism of secular government, be it local, state, or federal. Since the exercise of paternalistic authority was quite familiar to them, most Catholics embraced with facility the economic, political, and social benefits that derived from the spirit of liberty. In fact, most Catholics willingly became inculturated into the new secular order. Working their way toward the “golden calf” of economic prosperity, and the benefits of political power and social influence, they became what can only be called, “American Catholics.”

The enormous wealth generated in the post-World War II era by a free-enterprise marketplace was unprecedented in the history of this country and of the world. So, beside political liberty, a capitalistic system now provided Catholics with economic liberty. Thus, too many Catholics changed from Faith-rich but materially impoverished childlike believers to materially-rich but Faith impoverished de-Christianized Americans. A friend of mine described the changeover this way: “Scientific and technological advances have so established themselves in the Catholic mind, and the political and social advantages have become so obvious, and the promises of economic freedom and material happiness are so great, why should any baptized person rely on the Catholic Church or the Deposit of Faith? Why should he or she not be American first and Catholic second?”

Vatican official, Josef Cardinal Ratzinger, said the same thing, but in more general terms:

"Of course it is easier for the moment to take pleasure in material things, in what is tangible, in things that bring us happiness and can be directly bought and accessed . . . This is a dreadfully strong temptation. In this way, happiness becomes a commodity that can be bought and sold . . . The question concerning God now seems quite unnecessary."