By Sr. Doreen, SSJD.
“Love came down at Christmas, love all lovely, love divine: love was born at Christmas – star and angels gave the sign. Worship we the Godhead, love incarnate, love Divine; worship we our Jesus – what shall be our sacred sign? Love shall be our token, love be yours and love be mine, love to God and neighbour, love for prayer and gift and sign.” (hymn poem by Christina Rosetti)
Love came down at Christmas, for everyone, everyone. It opened the possibility and the welcome into the heart of God. This gift from God was given so that it would free us to see others as God sees them. The real gift of Love born at Christmas is a sign of both God’s magnificence and wonder and of God’s humility, love and healing. It is a gift to all humanity – no boundaries of race, religion, language or colour! All humanity has been wrapped up in God’s garment of love at Christmas for all time!
Where is love trying to be born around you now? And how can you offer it a bit of shelter, even as rude as a stable, that the holy light can be kindled?
Joan Chittister in her book “For Everything a Season” wrote: “Love not only saves us from the smallness of ourselves and gives us the courage to risk ourselves to others. Love teaches us as well the grandeur of a God who does miracles through the unlikely likes of a limited me. It gives us esteem, admiration, regard, and respect. Love makes us feel beautiful, feel regal. It lifts us out of the humdrum of the ordinary to crown us with surprise and the fullness of life. It brings with it a cataract of approval and pride and affirmation and attention that makes the long days easy and the hard times possible. Love enables us to love ourselves, the fundamental preparation for being able to love anybody else.”
And we are also chosen, we who come to celebrate with the Holy family at Christmas, for our own unique calling in a world in need of love and healing. It is a time of asking ourselves what are the smallest gestures of love, of hope, of healing have I been chosen to birth into the world? The world is hungry for care, compassion, and unconditional love. The mystery of the Love that came down at Christmas does lay upon us all a responsibility to the rest of humanity and the whole of creation, not only on this one day but every day.
In a poem ‘Maybe This Time’ written by Joanna Weston, an Associate of the Sisterhood of Saint John the Divine from Vancouver Island, British Columbia, who died several years ago. She wrote:
“Let it be this time that the stable is open within me.
Let it be this time that the light is born within me.
Let it be this time that Christ is come within me.”
Both Joanna Weston, Norah Lofts, and Christina Rosetti in the excerpts of stories/poetry/song that follow in my reflections, bring a very homey, loving, and intimate flavour into the Mystery of the Incarnation, the mystery of God with us, that we celebrate at Christmas. Their thoughts add a flavour of the profound within the ordinary, that just might bring back some of the richness of what this Mystery of Christmas is all about – in bringing love, hope and healing to each other and the world.
Christina Rosetti in the Hymn “In the Bleak Mid-Winter” wrote
“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, 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-winer a stable place sufficed the Lord God almighty, Jesus Christ.
Angels and archangels may have gathered there; cherubim and seraphim thronged the air; but his mother only in her maiden bless, 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 wise man, I would do my part; Yet what can I give Him? Give Him my heart.” (Common Praise #122.)
Indeed, what can I give God, poor as I am? Give my heart and there to worship God with a kiss. God reaches out for an intimate, homey, loving relationship with me, with us, with the whole world. This Christmas gift is a love, a hope, and a healing, so needed and so desired in our world today.
Joanna Weston wrote a prose poem called The Stable’s Story:
“Smoky darkness coils in shadows. Spiders lurk in rock crevices and mice nest in corners. The couple crouches by the tiny fire away from the cave’s cold mouth.
He watches out of the corners of his eyes, trying not to see her pain as she urges the baby to birth, shifts her robe back on her thighs.
Sweat runs on her cheeks, down her neck. He reaches out with a cloth and wipes her face. She manages a smile.
Hours run one into one another. A servant brings water. The fire flares and dies; he feeds it to flame again. He feels the chill of the night on his skin, she seems unaware.
A thin newborn cry breaks his concentration on her. He has forgotten the cause of her pain, been too focused on her.
She reaches between her legs and lifts the baby from the straw. He cuts the cord, bundles the placenta away, and hands her the swaddling cloths. She wraps the baby loosely and lies back, settling him against her.
The baby turns his head into her, seeking her breast as she opens her robe. She smiles sleepily.
Gently, the father changes the straw under her, pulling her robe down round her legs. He sits beside her, touches the baby’s face with a rough finger.
Light dances around them”
Indeed, it is in ordinary and very human happenings, in the daily activities and events of life, that we meet the mystery of the Incarnation, an incarnation that is not finished, not yet complete, for it is to be completed in us. We are called to continue the incarnation – to continue giving birth – toward a new creation.
Norah Lofts’ novel “How Far to Bethlehem” ends with this:
“Mary went to the place where the child lay, lifted him and turned, holding the baby towards them, as though offering them a reward for their journey, for their gifts. And suddenly they were all smiling. Joseph with his faith restored, Melchior with his errand done, Balthazar who had seen this wonderful thing and Gaspar who had found his heart. Even Mary, burdened with the weight of knowledge, knowing the end at the beginning, troubled by so much that must be kept locked in her heart, smiled, as any women does, feeling the weight and warmth of her child, smelling the sweet, clean, milky scent. So, she held him towards them, and the beam from the lantern was caught in the soft fuzz of baby hair; so that to those who watched, it seemed for a moment that he wore a halo of light.”
Indeed, it is entering into this mystery – God is not just in heaven, God is also on earth! The heart of the matter is that life with God is as much about dealing with each other as it is about dealing with God. God takes on flesh so that every home becomes holy, every person becomes Christ, and all food and drink become a sacrament. As St Teresa’s prayer puts it “Christ has no body now but yours, no hands but yours … this gift is now ours to share. The mystery and magnificence of God has become one of us!
This Christmas my heart’s desire is summed up in the hymn called Star Child from the hymn book Gather #449:
Star Child, earth Child go between of God, love Child, Christ Child heaven’s lightning rod:
This year, this year let the day arrive when Christmas comes for everyone, everyone alive.
Street child, beat child, no place left to go, hurt child, used child, no one wants to know.
This year, this year let the day arrive when Christmas comes for everyone, everyone alive.
Grown child, old child, memory full of years, sad child, lost child, story told in tears:
This year, this year let the day arrive when Christmas comes for everyone, everyone alive.
Spared child, spoiled child, having, wanting more, wise child, faith child knowing joy in store:
This year, this year let the day arrive when Christmas comes for everyone, everyone alive.
Hope for peace child, God’s stupendous sign, down-to-earth Child, Star of stars that shine:
This year, this year let the day arrive when Christmas comes for everyone, everyone alive.
