Chris
McDonnell, UK
christymac733@gmail.com
Previous articles by Chris Comments welcome here
December 19, 2018
The Jesus Child
Advent
is almost complete. December days of preparation are drawing to an end. On
this day, the shortest day in the Winter Season in the Northern
hemisphere, the commercial atmosphere of purchase and preparation is at a
height. Each year in our parish, named for John the Baptist, the prophet
of Advent, we have included a Proclamation of the feast of Nativity, read
by candlelight in a darkened church. It is read during the liturgy on the
eve of Christmas
It
tells the story of the Jesus Child, the story of a birth in the small
Palestinian town of Bethlehem at a time of Occupation.
It
begins with these words.
"Time
and event slip from our grasp.
Taken
from the eternity that is God, came the Son.
To
a people prepared came the unrecognised child.
In
his time he came into our time and disturbed the peace".
It
was hard to recognise a Child born in such circumstances, even more so to
appreciate the peace that his arrival would disturb. His mother, a young
Jewish woman, had carried him during the tiring months of her pregnancy.
She would stand, years later, at the foot of the Cross beyond the walls of
Jerusalem. But then his Advent was promised over many years, from the
eternity of God.
"For
each of us, half people wandering in a lost world, peace comes with
wholeness. Appreciating our broken-being, we seek completion".
There
is recognition of a need, a thirst for our sustenance. The image of a
wandering people is unfortunately one that we are familiar with in our
present days. The movements of peoples from Africa and the Middle East
into Europe, the travels of those in Central America seeking help have
brought tragic
stories to our attention. All share one common theme, that of waiting.
"From
the East has come to us a story of a wandering people, waiting for the
Lord, the story of a turbulent people moving with purpose yet often
confused, often distraught sometimes lonely, to the point of pain".
However
arduous the journey, they do not hesitate to take to difficult roads or
cross or cross dangerous seas. They do so with purpose, sometimes at the
cost of their lives.
"But
always drawn ever closer toward that one point of incarnation. Each of us,
a pilgrim people the sparks that the Spirit Wind blew to life. Each of us,
warming to a greater fire, seek the Child that is its source, the cause of
our very existence".
"In
the silence that is night, in the darkness when the Sun is momentarily
lost, huddled for warmth we reach Other".
"Here
tonight within these walls, proof against that awesome night here again is
cause for hope, here again a birth brings light. Pass on, pass on the fire
that is given you, the fire that is within you, the fire that is you
until, burnt to ash, you are at the very centre. There in the stable
before the Child of Mary, is the promise of the Father, the gift of the
Spirit.
Pass
on and stand before the telling of the story of the
Jesus Child. And in the disturbing of your peace, accept the peace he
brings from the eternity of God".
We
are living in times where peace is being constantly being disturbed, where
the consequences of our own folly are uncertain.
May
the peace of the Christ be with each one of us as we celebrate, once
again, his birth in a stable. May we tell again the story of the Jesus
Child that others might hear his Good News.
END
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