Mysteries Beyond Mind and Speech

What mysteries beyond mind and speech! God in His compassion is born on earth, putting on the form of a servant that He may snatch from servitude to the enemy those who with fervent love cry out: Blessed art Thou, O Savior Who lovest mankind.

1^st Stichera at The Praises, Orthros of Christmas Eve

 As we approach the great Feast of the Holy Nativity, the Church’s hymns help us to prepare for the feast. During the Pre-Feast, a joyful and wonderful preparation is announced: what is about to happen is good news! 

Several years ago – it seems like a lifetime ago now – I read a book called “The Kingdom of God is a Party”, by Tony Campolo. I’m not necessarily recommending the book, but I have always found the title striking. And it is so wondrously true at this time of year!  The very Kingdom of the heavens, the Kingdom of our God, is bursting upon us – gate-crashing the petty concerns of our lives (Thanks to Philip Turner for that remarkable line from his passion play, "Christ in the Concrete City!) and as the Kingdom of the Heavens gate-crashes our live this Nativity Season, everyone, without exception, is invited!

As I have mentioned in my last two posts, the Pre-Festal theme is joyful anticipation and, even more important, joyful invitation. But that invitation is not just to us, but to the entire cosmos!

Come, Israel slow of heart, cast from thee the mist that lies upon thy soul; recognize the Maker Who is born in a cave. He is the expectation of the nations; He shall destroy thy feasts: for thou wilt not consent to cry aloud: Christ the King of Israel is come.

 “O Sun, my Son, how shall I wrap Thee in swaddling clothes? How shall I give Thee milk, Who givest food to all creation? How shall I hold Thee in my arms Who holdest all things? How shall I look upon Thee without fear, on Whom the cherubim with many eyes dare not to lift their gaze?” So spake she who knew not wedlock as she held Christ.

O ye shepherds, shout aloud in new songs: O ye Magi, cast away your magic spells. Let the mountains and the hills rejoice exceedingly. O ye daughters of kings, come unto the joy of the Theotokos. O ye people, let us say: Blessed art Thou, our God Who now art born: glory to Thee.

Come, O Bethlehem, prepare for the birth. Come, O Joseph, and be enrolled with Mary. O most sacred manger! O swaddling clothes that carry God! There the Life was wrapped, even Christ our God, Who shall tear to pieces the bands of death, and bind fast mortal men to incorruption.

O most blessed womb of the Maid of God, thou hast been shown forth as spiritually vaster than the heavens. For Him Whom heaven cannot contain, thou dost carry and hold within thee. O most blessed breasts of the Virgin, that Christ has sucked Who feeds all that has breath! He has built flesh for Himself in the womb of the Maiden that knew not a man.

2^nd – 4^th Stichera and Doxostika from the Praises, Orthros on Christmas Eve

Again, the theme is joyful anticipation and, even more important, joyful invitation, not just to us, but to the entire cosmos! It is not just you and I and our families and friends who have received the invitation and are almost ready to celebrate the Great Feast – it’s all! 

Those who have rejected Christ (represented in the hymn by Israel) are invited.

The Holy Theotokos, who in the heavenlies celebrates with us, amazed and filled with wonder at what has been wrought through her, is included!

All who have ever gazed upon and all who will ever gaze upon Him before whom the angelic hosts cover their eyes are enticed to participate.

The very city of Bethlehem and even the inanimate objects such as the manger and the swaddling clothes – all that was, is, and ever shall be - is not excluded, but is now coming to celebrate with us  the Nativity in the Flesh of our Lord, God and Saviour!

No matter how we may feel at Christmas – and for many it’s a lonely and grief-filled time of year – whether we’re surrounded by friends and family, or even if we have no one with which to share the Feast, we are not alone. The whole of the Cosmos, the bodiless powers of heaven, all peoples who are, who have been, and who will be, are now are invited with the very rocks and stones of this wondrous Creation to join in the Feast!

Christ is born! Let us (all) glorify Him!

Reflecting The Light As More Than Tinsel

OK, Christmas decorations are up almost everywhere.

Some folk started decorating right after Halloween.

Others waited until the middle of November.

Some families kept Christmas at bay until after the American Thanksgiving, while still others started in the first week of December or so.

And some, God bless them, Christmas purists that they are, wait until after the Sunday before Christmas.

When I grew up, the finishing touch for our tree was always the tinsel – thin bright strips of metallic ribbon that never stay quite straight but twist and turn and reflect the light in thousands of ways. I don’t know about you, but for me it just isn’t a Christmas tree and the task of decorating for Christmas isn’t complete without tinsel.

My family had a special tradition about the tinsel. You see, we never threw it out. After the celebrations of Christmas were over – usually about the second Sunday in January, we took down the tree, and each little strip of tinsel was taken off individually and straightened out and laid in our tinsel box!

 

(I’m not going to tell you about the time I gathered it all in a ball and stuffed it away before my folks noticed. Actually, I am not going to tell you about what happened eleven months later – when my Mom opened the tinsel box!)

Tinsel is bright but basically lifeless. It reflects light and colour, but has none of its own. The expression “Tinsel-Town” captures the shallowness, superficiality, and skin-deep glamour of the place it refers to – Hollywood. And too often, our fast-paced and busy lives become like tinsel – bright on the outside, but shallow, lifeless and lightless. Peer-pressure, the compulsion to conform to others’ standards, and political correctness are some of the forces that can make us tinsel-like. Not to mention the variously sized flat-screens we spend far too much time watching, which exude shallowness and superficiality. Like the common cold, “tinsel-ness” is all too easy to catch and pass on to others.

Instead of having lives that merely reflect things on the surface – like tinsel – you and I are called to lives that shine radiantly from within. Christians tend to think that the light with which we are to shine is reflected light – that by copying Christ (What Would Jesus Do?) we will shine with His light reflected from His radiance. After all, Jesus Christ is the Light of the world. [John 8.12; 9. 5]

But such reasoning does not take into account the intimate union we are to have with Christ. We are called to actually partake of His nature, so that we become by His Grace what He is by Nature. In pursuing such union – and deliberately opening ourselves to it – we become little “Lights of the world”, much as the pagans in ancient Antioch referred to the followers of Jesus in that city as “little christs” – “Christians”. He Who is the Light of the world has declared

You are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.  [Matthew 5. 12-14]

We are called to be more than tinsel, reflecting a light that is outside of ourselves, while possessing none of our own. We are called to shine with a light that takes root in our innermost being – through our participation in the fullness of life in the Church. By partaking of the Mysteries of Christ, by practising the grace-filled disciplines of the Faith, we discover Christ within us, the hope of glory! [see Colossians 1.27]

This is an important part of the message of Christ’s nativity in the cave over 2000 years ago. We do more than just commemorate an event which happened in ancient times. In our celebration of the Nativity (including the preparation which leads up to it) we are blessed to actually participate in it and Christ our true God is born in us, as He was born in a cave. Indeed, in receiving His precious Body and Blood in the Chalice, you and I can become the cave in which He is born and from which He shines radiantly!

When we receive Him – when we welcome Him – not just for a day or a season, but for our whole lives, He begins to shine forth from within us, transforming our lives from tinsel-like existence unto something radiant and bright.

Christ is born! Let us glorify Him!

 

Put Christ Back Into Christmas?

Several times this Nativity Fast I will be posting articles I wrote for our local weekly newspaper, The Fort RECORD. This one is from 2009.

Every Christmas I see it, and you probably have too - a sign that decries all the things that Christmas has become and urges people to "put Christ back into Christmas."

I must admit that it seems a pretty weak-kneed, wishy-washy and poor sort of a Christ Who would allow Himself to be displaced, or, even worse, would need our help getting back into the Feast which bears His Holy Name!

The truth is that Christ our God has never left Christmas.  For all who will search for Him He is still unmistakenly present in "The Christmas Season." Because there is no place where He cannot be found. 

Christ can be found in family gatherings where His name is never mentioned or His existence affirmed.  He can be found in long and grouchy shopping lines among people carrying purchases that may well be forgotten (or at least broken) by Boxing Day.

Christ can be found in gifts (for He is, after all, "The First Christmas Gift!"). And He can be found in the places like shopping malls where Santas bounce children on their knees and send them off with a cheery (and sometimes weary) "Ho! Ho! Ho!"  Christ can even be found in "The Winter Solstice" in the "Winter Holiday" and even in "X-mas!" 

Why? - Because it's His will and purpose to be found, and no matter what Christmas has become or becomes, or what we weak willed and fickle folk try to make of it, Christ will never forsake or abandon the Feast which marks His entrance in the flesh into this world He created, and loved, and died for.

Next time you see a sign or hear the words, "Put Christ back into Christmas" smile a little and remember - He's always been in Christmas, He is today, and He always will be, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages!