Why We Feast: A Matter of Life and Death

“I have come that you may have life and have it to the fullest.”  (John 10:10)

“The glory of God is man fully alive.”  ∼ St. Irenaeus, Against Heresies

The Church tells us that we exist for the purpose of giving glory to God. We see that happening most directly in the liturgy of the Mass, but our entire life exists for liturgy, the praise and glory we owe to the Creator. This end or purpose does conflict with our intrinsic longings and personal fulfillment. God is our happiness and he is glorified by the life that blossoms in us. Festivity is a key way that we express the joy, gratitude, and happiness that we have from God. It forms a liturgy of our life in which we gather together to praise God through fellowship, food and drink, music, and prayer.

But our lives have broken away from this liturgy. Secularism poses a fundamental challenge to festivity, because within a secular culture our lives do not point to God, but to ourselves. We do not find our joy in being a creature of God, but fear him as a threat to our freedom. We crouch in anxiety and turn to intoxicants to cover over this anxiety. We can’t celebrate because we don’t have anything to celebrate, but create false festivals of consumerism and shallow distractions to point us away from what is worth celebrating. Christmas has become a flashpoint of true versus false festivity. One festivity affirms that we have a life worth living and celebrating because God has become man. The false festivity turns us rather to a sentimentality expressed in superficial narratives and entertainment…..Read entire article here:  crisismagazine.com/2018/why-we-feast-a-matter-of-life-and-death