By Archbishop Fred Hiltz.
“All thy works surround thee,
earth and heaven reflect thy rays;
stars and angels sing around thee,
Center of unbroken praise.”
First of all Happy Christmas to you all.
As many of you know I am for a time serving as Priest in Charge of St. Nicholas Church, Birch Cliff on Kingston Road. I have thoroughly enjoyed Advent and Christmas with the people there, and their willingness to happily listen when I say “I have an idea!“ for many years they have had a tradition at their Family Eucharist in Christmas Eve of having all the children come forward to decorate a Christmas Tree with a chat around it. My thought was that this year we might shift the focus from the tree to the creche, and have the children bring all the figures into it, housed as it is under the altar turned around for Christmas. I quickly came to learn from members of the Altar Guild that these figures are very old and very precious, crafted and painted by a renowned local artist…So great care would have to be taken. I assured them of such care and they were actually very excited by how this all might unfold.
On Christmas Eve just before the 4pm Family Eucharist began I said to the congregation “I need a child to carry a beautiful star in a procession, and then a shepherd’s staff in another.”
Within seconds little hands went waving in the air…a little girl who would carry the star and a little boy who would carry the staff.
After the story of Jesus’ birth that little girl with the greatest of delight held up the star and led the first procession of all the children with Mary and Joseph and The Child. When we arrived at the crèche and the figures were placed we all knelt down and sang “Away in A Manger”.
After the story of the Shepherds hearing the news of the Saviour’s birth that little boy with the utmost of a quiet kind of curiosity led the second procession of all the children with the shepherds. When they had been placed along with a whole litter of animals of every kind we all sat down and sang “Shepherds in the fields abiding”.
Just lovely…the children’s’ devotion set the tone everyone’s response to the call of Christmas…”O come let us adore him, o come let us adore him, o come let us adore him, Christ the Lord.”
This Sunday and next little Zyska will carry the star in procession as we continue to celebrate the Birth of our Saviour, and she will be doing it with great delight.
Pondering a homily for this Third Day of Christmas, this festal day so dear to you, I kept thinking of stars and angels…
Each of the Readings appointed are the writing of a John…
John, the Beloved and Evangelist,
John, the Apostle and Pastor,
John, the Seer and Divine.
John the Evangelist, believed to have been the Beloved Disciple, reflects on the Nativity of our Lord from a lofty perspective.
The Word of God becoming flesh and dwelling among us, full of grace and truth, as of the only begotten of the Father…and from his grace we have received grace upon grace…
John the Apostle of Love, believed to have been a pastor who even into very old age endeavoured to shape a community deeply rooted in the love of God in Christ and all that summons the community to be and to do.
John the Divine, believed to be the Seer who at the command of an angel recorded a great Revelation. It begins with a magnificent vision of Christ, the First and the Last, the Living One, holding in his hand seven stars and walking among seven golden lampstands.
“As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand”, says the Lord ,”and the seven golden lampstands: the seven lampstands are the seven churches…and they were those of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. And the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches.
That word to John is preface to what The Lord then has to say each of the churches.
In the broadest of strokes each angel has a message shaped by a pattern
beginning with a word of commendation in what has been the faithful devotion of the congregation even in the face of persecution,
continuing with a commentary on the current state of its spiritual well being,
calling for repentance for failures to live with fidelity the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus,
summoning a yet deeper devotion to the Gospel,
and concluding with encouragement in the abiding presence of The Lord to bless and guide.
I have always thought that as there was an angel for those first seven Churches, so there is an angel for every Church…
every Church in every nation,
every parish church in every community…
So what might be an angel’s message to our beloved Church throughout Canada?
What might be an angel’s message to a little parish like St. Nicholas, Birch Cliff…to be as it were a lampstand radiating the love and goodness of God in Christ?
And as sure as I believe there is an angel appointed to every church, I believe there is an angel appointed to every Religious Community, each in their own way a great lampstand in a world that longs for light, for hope, and the peace that is of God’s great design and blessing for all.
So, dear Sisters, consider yourselves one of those great lampstands…
As your Rule of Life reads…”our community is called to be a stable and radiating center of the presence and power of Christ…our apostolate is the outflowing of our union with God and with one another in God.”
Walking around the lampstand you are…and that is what you are…what might the angel appointed to hover over you and to hallow all your labours be saying?
A question … not for me to answer but perhaps for you to ponder…
My prayer for you on this Third Day of Christmas, this precious festal day for you …that the delight of a little girl who so happily carries a star and leads processions to the crèche be yours this Christmastide.