So, Why wait?According to the Liturgical FAQ page of St. Jude's Catholic Church, Ft. Wayne, Indiana, we are to refrain from singing carols,
"For the same reason we don’t sing “Jesus Christ Is Risen Today, Alleluia!” during Lent. We are waiting. We are preparing. We are getting ready for the feast. It is not yet time to shout and celebrate. That time will come, and we’ll be ready for it. During Advent, we dwell with the prophets of old who yearned for God’s coming. Though, of course, Emmanuel is already with us, we take the time to reflect on what it means to wait for the fullness of God’s coming. The kingdom of God is among us – but not yet fully realized. That’s up to us. So now we consider the whats, hows and whos of our participation in the coming of God’s reign on earth. We wait for Jesus coming in history. We wait for Jesus coming to us as we assemble and pray. We wait for Jesus coming to us in the proclamation of the scriptures. We wait for Jesus coming to us in Holy Communion and all the sacraments. We wait for Jesus coming for each of us at the end of our lives. We wait for Jesus coming in glory at the end of time. After more than three weeks of quiet, reflective waiting, we are ready to shout: “Joy to the world! O come, all ye faithful! Hark, the herald angels sing!” But until then, we anticipate with delight what we know will come on December 24, in the middle of that Silent Night, Holy Night."Yes, OK, but...seriously? For starters, there is no reason why churches can't sing "Jesus Christ is Risen Today, Alleluia" on any given Sunday. Every Sunday is a celebration of the resurrection, which is why we worship on Sundays to begin with. The only reason we don't sing so-called Easter hymns on other Sundays is because we don't—that's all. We could. We should. But, through force of habit we don't.
Then there's the waiting thing. First, we already have a season for reflection and waiting, Lent. Is it really necessary to force churches to go through another one? What more is gained? Second, what does not singing carols have to do with waiting? Yes, of course, the lyrics of the carols celebrate the events of the birth of Christ as recorded in Matthew and Luke, but not as if they are actually happening now. Christmas carols are a reflection of the church's memory of the coming of Christ. We can wait in anticipation of the Coming of Christ while singing them, too. Third, many carols are appropriate for virtually every Sunday of the year. Carols such as "Joy to the World!" and "O Come, All Ye Faithful" voice sentiments not strictly tied to the birth of Christ. Indeed, just as every Sunday is a celebration of the resurrection so, too, every Sunday celebrates the coming of Christ, God with us. Finally, we've already been waiting all year to sing the carols. Enough waiting—let's have some fun!
I suspect this is another post-Vatican II thing where Presbyterian seminaries & preachers got enthusiastic about Catholic liturgical reform and went ye therefore and did likewise—for no good reason, so far as I can tell.
But at the end of the day, all of this is just logic chopping, to a degree. The real reason that churches should sing carols throughout Advent and at other times during the year is because they are fun. They are lively, and many of them invoke fond cultural as well as liturgical memories. In an age of dwindling worship attendance, it is hardly wise to withhold the pleasure of singing carols for the sake of a waiting period that most lay people don't buy into and most aren't even aware of. Jesus, after all, thought of the Kingdom of God as being a party, a banquet that we are invited to, and Christmas carols are a great way to celebrate the party. So, let's sing them to our heart's content! Amen.
