The Christmas commercial season is off to a galloping start. Right now, I’m content to revel in quiet moments pregnant with abeyant expectations. I’m taking a strategic respite from the relentless barrage of idols seeking my homage. Like… what about those too good to ignore Black Friday specials eagerly awaiting my patronage?

There is another way through all this noise. How about the afterglow of our Thanksgivings? Are we nursing gratitude comatose? I hope so. The food ones can’t compete. Friends have been recounting their Thanksgivings experiences of deeply connecting with people in satisfying and surprising ways. Counting our blessings and cultivating a penchant for wonder are soul lifting propensities deserving our undivided attention. 

I suggest we replace Black Friday with White Friday. Did it ever occur do you why one of our most beloved holidays of consumerism is called “Black Friday?” Inquiring minds need to know. According to History.com there are two widely cited events associated with Black Friday. The first occurred in 1869 when:

“two notoriously ruthless Wall Street financiers, Jay Gould and Jim Fisk, worked together to buy up as much of the nation’s gold as they could, hoping to drive the price sky-high and sell it for astonishing profits. On that Friday in September, the conspiracy finally unraveled, sending the stock market into free fall and bankrupting everyone from Wall Street barons to farmers.” (Source: https://www.history.com/articles/black-friday-thanksgiving-origins-history)

The second event occurred in the 1950s when:

“police in Philadelphia used the term to describe the chaos that ensued on the day after Thanksgiving, when hordes of suburban shoppers and tourists flooded the city in advance of the annual Army-Navy football game held that Saturday. Not only were Philadelphia police unable to take the day off, but they had to work extra-long shifts dealing with the additional crowds and traffic. Shoplifters also took advantage of the bedlam in stores and made off with merchandise, adding to the law enforcement headache.” (Source: https://www.history.com/articles/black-friday-thanksgiving-origins-history)

I don’t know about you but neither event inspires me to join co-opting aficionados of the “shop till you drop” frenzy. Look, there’s nothing wrong with shopping and there’s certainly nothing wrong with showering others with thoughtful gifts. It’s more about priorities. Are our eyes being drawn to the dazzling white pin light of Advent hope? That’s what this suggested new proverbial, “White Friday” tradition could be about.

Let’s take a long pause and invite the stillness of unformed, unrealized blessings to wash over us. Will we invite Christ to impregnate our souls? Are we attuned to our hearts’ nascent prayers clamoring for renewal? How are we opening ourselves to encountering the vulnerable intimating needs of others? It is in these sacred spaces that White Friday begins and never needs to end. Advent transports us to the threshold of birth, not just the birth of Christ, but our births as children of the Kingdom of God. Christ’s gentle, quiet entry into our noisy world happens in a simple handmaid’s womb.

Our White Friday can bring us face to face with the mystical reality of Christ establishing His dwelling place in us, with us, and among us. Our King prefers quiet beginnings. I think it has something to do with his stealth Divine Nature. Maybe it’s because our hearts and souls are easily overwhelmed by the Majesty of our King’s Unconditional Love.

Consider this: the liturgical year goes out with a bang. For the last two weeks the readings have been full of intense visions of hellish self-imposed consequences of avoiding the Path, and replete with eschatological mysteries:

Jesus said to his disciples:

“Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy
from carousing and drunkenness
and the anxieties of daily life,
and that day catch you by surprise like a trap.
For that day will assault everyone
who lives on the face of the earth.
Be vigilant at all times
and pray that you have the strength
to escape the tribulations that are imminent
and to stand before the Son of Man.”
(Luke 21:34-36)

Our King of Love is all business. We need to be ready. Whether it be the hour of our death, the end of an earthly era, or the end of time we will stand before Jesus. Our soul will be revealed in the Light of Christ. The truth of every thought, word, action, intention, in action, attitude, etc. will be exposed.

For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open.
(Luke 8:17)

The King of the Universe (Avinu Malkeinu in transliterated Hebrew) flips the script. Yeshua enters our world regaled in opulent humility. An unassuming birth consumes the heavens in refulgent Glorias. Jesus meets us where we are and how we are, without the bondage of sin. He lives for us. Jesus teaches us that The Kingdom of God/The Kingdom of Heaven will be established in the blood atoned soul of each person, spread by Christ possessed hearts, and catalyzed by the agentic prayers and actions of every willing body.

We may be stuck with Black Friday, but White Friday opens the aperture of our camera to picture a lavish new vista made possible by Good Friday:

They shall beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks;
one nation shall not raise the sword against another,
nor shall they train for war again.
(Isaiah 2:4)

Soon and very soon, our eternal Prince of Peace will be here. May He find us waiting and ready for His breath of Life. The first purple Advent candle is lit. Let’s pray with each other and with earnest, endearing cries:

Oh, dear Christ, our King, our God, our Emmanuel
come and be the Light in our darkness.