Here we are at the threshold of Christmas. Can you feel this moment, still, quiet; circling around the soul is expectancy, anticipation, waiting is beginning to give way to this new never yet moment. Indeed, the Incarnate One who is the Love and Compassion of God comes. ‘He comes ever-comes’ as the poet Tagore has prayed. We are the recipients of God’s self-gift in Christ. What is my interior disposition to be on this holy eve of Christmas. Is it not as simple as this: to be present, to abide in silence, and to be open to receive. On one level this is not difficult and yet it is difficult because our lives are stamped with paradox. We long for this birth in the soul, this new of God in our lives but then the other side pops up spewing doubt, negativity, fear trying to pull us away from this sacred moment. Still, we are standing at this threshold where God will become more of our flesh and that of our world. This threshold time does ask faith, a faith that helps us to be present to the pregnant silence and opens us wide and deep to receive the grace that is coming. And so, we pray: ‘Be still my soul, open wide in faith’.
Sr. Maria Boulding wrote: “The word ‘new’ has tremendous resonances in Christianity. Christ brings us a new covenant, a new birth, a new commandment of love and the new wine of the eucharist; we are formed into one new person in him, we sing the new song of the redeemed, and we await the new Jerusalem, a new heaven and a new earth” (The Coming of God, p.62). In this sacred season, this small word ‘new’ has profound and expansive resonances for our personal lives and for the larger horizon of human life. God’s incarnation is on-going, and it is new, ever new. Are we ready for change, for the ‘new’, inside and out?
Maria Boulding continues: “This renewal is wholly God’s work, but it is not carried out without our consent. It takes courage and humility to let go of the old and allow yourself to be created anew” (p.62). She goes on to say that there is a need to “‘have space in us’”, space for what she calls “holy newness” (p.63). Indeed, ‘holy newness’ is at the threshold of this Christmas eve. It silently invites us to let go of whatever old baggage we are weighed down by, to dwell on the pregnant silence where God’s new gesture of life, of love will come forth. Let us focus on the gift of Christmas not on the negative, with its alluring power of darkness. Like Mary we are overshadowed by the Holy Spirit.
These words from a homily of Pope Benedict XVI tells us how we should use this silent waiting: “Yes indeed, that is what we should pray for on this Holy Night. Lord Jesus Christ, born in Bethlehem, come to us! Enter within me, within my soul. Transform me. Renew me. Change me, change us all from stone and wood into living people, in whom your love is made present, and the world is transformed” (December 24, 2009). Within the silent interior depths let us pray: Transform, renew, change me O Lord so that I may be your light of love and mercy in this small piece of earth that you have entrusted me with. Make me more and more your vessel of peace.
To conclude, I quote these poetic words from a Christmas card sent by a dear friend of our community.
“Even in the cries of the world
there is singing
Even in the darkness there is light.
Even in the heart
the smallest flame is enough
to light the heavens.”
No matter how dark and destructive the problems of the world are, or the negativity that arises in our hearts, there is light, there is music singing, there is a small flame alight in you, in me, in everyone we know. This is the miracle of Christmas, and it is now our miracle, hodie, today.
Sr. Kathy DeVico, Abbess
