At a depot in New Orleans, Mississippian Frances Joseph-Gaudet approached an unknown woman who was in tears, intending to give her a simple word of sympathy and a shoulder to lean on. She quickly learned that the stranger wept over the fate of her son, who was on his way by train to a state penitentiary for a crime that he supposedly did not commit.
For many years I was so disgusted by the commercialization that Christmas has endured, so sickened by the terror of consumption, the pressures of buying, giving, and eating, that I did not want even to think of Luke 2. The baby in the manger was embarrassing, like rich almond candy.
Beholding His Glory is only half our job. In our souls too the mysteries must be brought forth; we are not really Christians till that has been done. “The Eternal Birth,” says Eckhart, “must take place in you.”
For John, the irony is that the cross itself is the very place where the community of love is created. In the midst of his suffering, Jesus begins to weave this community from the small band of people who had the courage to keep company with him as he hung upon the cross, starting with his mother and the disciple whom he loved.
This Christmas season finds us a rather bewildered human race. We have neither peace within nor peace without. Everywhere paralyzing fears harrow people by day and haunt them by night. Our world is sick with war; everywhere we turn we see its ominous possibilities.
Maker of the sun, he himself is made under the sun. Disposing all Ages in the bosom of the Father, he consecrates this unique day in the womb of his mother: in Him he abides, from her he goes forth. Creator of heaven and earth, he was born on earth under heaven. Wisdom too deep for utterance, wise now a baby asleep; filling all the world, he lies in his crib; ruler of the stars, he suckles his mother’s breast.
Heavenly Father
you made this holy night radiant
with the brightness of your Son Jesus Christ:
help us to welcome him as the world’s true Light
The young clergyman and his wife do all the things you do on Christmas Eve. They tuck in the children. They lug the presents down out of hiding and pile them under the tree. Just as they’re about to fall exhausted into bed, the husband remembers his neighbor’s sheep. The man asked him to feed them for him while he was away, and in the press of other matters that night he forgot all about them.
Let us rise in early morning.
Reconciliation’s plan devising,
Fellow-sharer of the Father’s Throne,
Thee, O Christ, we, very early rising,
Tender lover of our spirits, own!
Heavenly Father
you chose the Virgin Mary
to be the mother of our Lord and Saviour:
fill us with your grace