By Sr. Doreen, SSJD.
The Anglican Church of Canada Calendar quote for December:
“Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you…
For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people; but the Lord will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you”. (Isaiah 60:1-2)
As we stand on the threshold of actually reaching Bethlehem, of being led to the Holy Family, I wondered if at the end of my Advent journey God would indeed find in my heart a soft and warm home of welcome, to be born, a home where God was always glad to stay? What prayer of intention will now guide my words and actions in the coming season?
When I was pondering these things for myself, I began to think of gifts. In Nora Lofts book “How Far to Bethlehem, the Magi brought gifts, “a jewelled gold crown from a dead king, frankincense that had been intended for the altar of an unknown god, and a pot of myrrh ointment that had eased a slave’s sores.” She portrayed their gifts as ordinary gifts that each of them had with them, and that had had some meaning for them. This was a new thought. As I thought about myself, and what gift could I bring, a line in a beautiful hymn by Christina Rosetti came to my mind. It has always been a source of inspiration and encouragement to me.
“In the bleak mid-winter, frosty wind made moan, earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone.
Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow, in the bleak mid-winter, long ago.
Our God, heaven cannot hold him, nor earth sustain; heaven and earth shall flee away
When He comes to reign. In the bleak mid-winter, a stable place sufficed the Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ.
Angels and archangels may have gathered there; cherubim and seraphim thronged in the air.
But his mother only in her maiden bliss, worshipped the beloved with a kiss.
What can I give Him, poor as I am? If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb; if I were a Magi,
I would do my part; yet what can I give Him? Give Him my heart.” (Common Praise hymn #122)
I think this hymn has always been a gift of hope to me. Norah Lofts way of describing the Magi gifts has added a deep hope – my ordinary self and my ordinary little gifts are precious ones, ones that we each have. And there is hope in the title ‘In the bleak mid-winter’, the hymn begins by placing us in the bleak mid-winter. I expect that we have all found ourselves at times in the season of our life which we could label as the bleak mid-winter! For so many it seems that often that bleak mid-winter happens as we approach or are in the midst of Christmas celebrations. It has given rise to some needed, beautiful and moving, services of ‘Blue Christmas’. And yet the hymn goes on to remind us, to tell us, that God comes in answer to my question ‘what can I give him poor as I am?’ in so many ways. God cannot be held away, cannot be held away from a poor dwelling place, a manger in a stable. Be that stable and manger my poor self. God comes, poor as I am, ready to be held in the manger of my heart, where I might worship God with a kiss. Sometimes I really think that God is inviting us into the hymns, the songs, the psalms that we say or sing, there to find the hope and the invitation to make it our own and to express our own desires: to see what we are saying and singing is about us! Such a gift of hope.
I think that we all can agree that the need for hope in our world today, a time of crisis, is so needed. God’s heart embraces much that I fear, that I don’t like, that I ignore, that I reject. So many sources of despair assault us – violence, health crisis, too much work or no employment, broken relationships, death, a sense of meaninglessness, anxieties. There are times when I feel life is overwhelming. At the same time, I know that even in the midst of this feeling of despair, hope stands. We all can take comfort in St. Paul’s message (2 Corinthians 4:8-9) “We are afflicted, in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.” Hope is a force that stands strong. It is a force from God that is at work always to wake us up and make us livelier. It is trust in God’s promises, choosing to live as persons of hope in ordinary times, that can be foundational to the spiritual formation that enables us to be persons of hope in times of crisis.
For you and for me there are opportunities to experience hope, and those opportunities are as close to us as those around us, as close to us as the world around us. We all have the capacity to pay attention, to imagine, and to enter into the wonder of life together. This is a God given gift and a God given call: God created us to be a home for hope, to discern hopes work, and to be people of hope. People of expectation! People who believed in God during the dark days: to believe in life, to cope with life, to live life, whatever the burdens that come with the daily dying’s of life. Hope gives us new opportunities to adopt new ways of thinking and behaving by inspiring us with the view that faith is the assurance of things hoped for! In a sense, as people of hope we look for the many ways the good that we seek is already ours.
Joan Chittister in her book “Scarred by Struggle, Transformed by Hope” wrote: “A Native American tale tells of an elder who was talking to a disciple about tragedy. The elder said, ‘I feel as if I have two wolves fighting in my heart. One wolf is the vengeful, angry, violent one. The other wolf is the loving, compassionate one.’ The disciple asked, ‘But which wolf will win the fight in your heart?’ and the holy one answered, ‘It depends on which one I feed.’ The spiritual task of life is to feed the hope that comes out of despair. Hope is not something to be found outside of us. It lies in the spiritual life we cultivate within. The whole purpose of wrestling with God is to be transformed into the self we were meant to become, to step out of the confines of our false securities and allow our creating God to go on creating in us.” She goes on to say “Hope is the recall of good in the past, on which we base our expectation of good in the future, however bad the present. It digs in the rubble of the heart for memory of God’s promise to bring good out of evil and joy out of sadness and, on the basis of those memories of the past, takes new hope for the future.”
We need to remember, as Krista Tippett in her book ‘Becoming Wise’ wrote: “Our world is abundant with quiet, hidden lives of beauty and courage and goodness. There are millions of people at any given moment, young and old, giving themselves over to service, risking hope, and all the while ennobling us all. To take such goodness in and let it matter – let it define our take on reality as much as the headlines of violence – is a choice we can make, to live by the light in the darkness, to be brave and free … Taking in the good, whenever and wherever we find it, gives us new eyes for seeing and living.”
I end where I began with the same question to ponder: if the Star of Bethlehem led me to the Holy Family, I wonder if God would indeed find a unity, a place in my heart, a soft and warm place to be born in, a home where God would always to glad of my welcome to stay? My friends, I believe that in a world that is bleak and frustrated and tired and worn out, there is a glimmer of possibility of something new. Unknown. And if we open our life to it, if we take one step and then another, and if we invite some friends along with us, if we let that nudge from God work in our life, it just might change everything, one little step at a time! Unity in diversity and in divisive situations – Hope is a strong gift.
