Thoughts on the Feast of Saint Lucy

Today is the feast of Saint Lucy, a virgin and martyr from Sicily who was murdered in the early fourth century because she rejected a pagan husband, having chosen to dedicate her life and her virginity to Christ.  The feast of Saint Lucy — whose name, Lucia, comes from the Latin word for “light”— is celebrated in many countries in northern Europe with festivals involving candles.  Lighted tapers are placed on evergreen trees, carried in procession, and, most dramatically, a young woman in each town or each household is chosen to distribute gifts wearing a green garland on her head, in which are placed (and balanced!) as many as a dozen lighted candles.

As a young person learning about these traditions in Catholic school, I remember thinking only one thing — you’re not supposed to have candles near a Christmas tree!  Didn’t the news run story after story every year about how a Christmas tree can go up in flames in eight-point-something seconds, and take the whole house with it?  How could these people be so reckless as to wear candles on their heads and walk around the room?  And put dozens of candles on their trees?  And why was Sister making us color in pictures of this every December as if it were something to admire?

Of course, life in late 20th-century metropolitan America is a lot different from these old traditional celebrations.  Our Christmas trees come from farms dozens or scores or, more likely, hundreds of miles away from the lots where we buy them.  They’ve been cut down, stacked, re-stacked on trucks, driven cross-country, re-stacked in the parking lot, bought and stored in the garage, and finally put up in a dry living room a few weeks before Christmas (because we forget about Advent).  In some cases, that “evergreen” tree has been dead for months by the time it makes it home.  It’s a much different situation than the Scandinavian family that can literally walk to the forest at the edge of the village, to cut the branches that are needed to celebrate St Lucy’s Day, or the tree that will be part of the Christmas celebration.  Those greens were connected to their source of life until just before they were needed, and so they are still fresh and strong enough to withstand the heat of the candles.  Our trees, which have been cut off for so long, are dried out and dead, and go up like fireworks at the first little spark.

I think there is a parable here for our spiritual life.  It is impossible for us to live on our own, separated from God, who is our source of life.  When we become isolated from him, by selfishness, pride, shame, guilt, fear — in short, by sin — then we quickly begin to “dry up” spiritually, and become susceptible to all sorts of temptations.  The teaching of the Church calls this “concupiscence” — the “kindling” or “tinder” of sin which is our common inheritance from the Original Sin, and which makes us liable to sin again.  We could say that it makes us “flammable” to the sparks of temptation that the Enemy throws our way.  He doesn’t have to work very hard at it, if we’ve become spiritually isolated and dried out — if our souls are in a flammable state, any little spark of gluttony, lust, greed, envy, anger, sadness or pride will light the fire.  What we need to do is the stay connected to our source of life, to put down deep roots so that the healing, soothing waters of the Holy Spirit can fill us and keep us fresh and healthy.  With grace flowing through us, we are well protected against the sparks that come from outside.

Tonight at Secular Oratory, we will be celebrating an Advent Penance Service.  Father Robert Byrne (who has been visiting us from the Oxford Oratory) will lead the prayer service and give the homily, and he and the other four of us will be available for individual confessions.  I hope that you will take this opportunity to reconnect with the source of grace, to put down roots again and to let the Holy Spirit pour healing, soothing water on those parts of your life that may have been singed a bit by the sparks of sin.  Not one of us can survive on our own, apart from the One who gives us strength, and the longer we try to do so, the more we realize this fact, from hard experience.  When we turn again to him, we learn — also from experience — how good it is to have his life, his love, and his Spirit, living in us.

The Penance Service begins at 7:30.  Hope to see you there.