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CHRISTMAS 2005: ALL TIME IS SACREDen espanol One of the monastic hymns for Advent captures for me a particular sense of the sacredness of this season. Of course, all time is sacred as are all places. But certain times and spaces invite us to see this more clearly – especially today, December 21st, the shortest day of the year and the day of the sun’s annual rebirth.
Eternal Wisdom, Word of God During Advent the liturgical readings reminded us of the mortality of the universe, the end of time, while also urging us to contemplate the meaning of the birth of Jesus: the regeneration of the world through the Word made flesh. The first Fiat (‘let there be light’) is now taken deeper by the Fiat of the new creation (‘Let it be done to me according to thy word’). In the new consciousness awakened in the mind of Christ we therefore see time differently. We still deal with daily problems and frustrations and uncertainties. But from the still point of the Incarnation, the meeting of time and eternity, we see beyond the immediate and the particular. We see into – we see with - the universal and the enduring. This is the difference the birth of Jesus makes. The great corrosive complaint of our culture is stress, the isolating feeling that time is our enemy. ‘I don’t have time to meditate!’ But the person who sees through that and does make time to be still in the present tastes the wisdom that has become embodied for us through faith.
During these holy holidays when we make time especially to be with family and friends, I hope you will find deep renewal, peace, joy and refreshment at every level of your life.
With much love and all Christmas blessings, Return to homepage |
The Nativity story has a deep realism about it. There is charm and beauty in the scene of Bethlehem but also a profound lesson about reality: the animals around the crib evoke a new harmony between all levels of creation. Mary and Joseph suggest that union of archetypal opposites which reveals God: the love that eternally gives birth. So rather than a traditional Christmas card image this year I offer (with their permission) a contemporary holy family in our community. It is a picture of Lucy and Ed Appert, meditators from the New York meditation community, and their long-awaited, newborn Henry, taken during their recent visit to the new meditation centre at Georgetown University.