Apologetics

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The psalms speak of keeping God’s solemn feasts. (See Psalm 81 v.3) Only these feasts are not to be kept in somberness or gloominess. Solemn feasts are celebration days. That’s how the psalmist intends for us to interpret solemnity. We can apply this word “solemn” in its festive sense to occasions in our own culture like graduations, proms, weddings, victory parades, awards ceremonies, inaugurations or coming of age celebrations. (Quinceanera in the Mexican tradition) Very often these events are meaningful rites of passage from one phase of human life to another. One may experience a sensation of royalty that is bestowed only rarely over the course of a lifetime. Yet there is also a kind of anxiety that is typical in such benchmark occasions that drives many people away from them. But it is precisely such anxiety, I’ve noticed, that sets off the joy in those occasions.
Perhaps in part because of the our 18th century justifiable revolt against certain oppressions in England’s monarchy, many of us Americans are somewhat allergic to formality. I know that I personally have suffered such an allergy and have missed out because of it. I have thus been allergically “rash” in my judgment about formality. There is pomp and ceremony involved in these above-mentioned milestones to be sure, but it needn’t be in the negative sense of the word as in “pompous” or plastic, or arrogant.
The Puritans of old, for example, were stereotyped by many historians as a somber people. It is more accurate to say that they were a SOLEMN people in the sense we are discussing here, for theirs was a fun-loving and joyous heritage despite its imperfections. Someone wisely said that pain is inevitable in life, but misery is a choice. All the days of the oppressed are miserable, but a cheerful heart, remember, has a continual feast. ( See Proverbs 15 v. 15)

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