►Birth

►Birth

From Pace A-l

best sense and more than I ever asked for. Surely Joseph got more than he ever anticipated.

And Mary is th£ epitome of a hu. man being who is open and receptive to God’s word. She was a willing receptacle for that word to be implanted and given birth to.

There is a quote from the French writer Andre Malraux that I will probably paraphrase: “A person’s character is not so much determined by what they do, but by the form that the memory of that person takes.”

In relation to Christmas, its reality arid meaning will have a lot to do with the way we remember it, with the way it is given birth in our memory.

From a religious standpoint, the birth is about. the triumph of love and hope for the world. It is an event, whether we are religious or not, that we all look for. But for me, as a Christian, it is a reality that begs for my response.

Enlightening darkness

I think there is a spirit that accompanies Christmas. We talk about the spirit of Christmas a lot.

Part of this spirit in its most sacred sense is that it gives people permission to do something for other people that may at other times of the year be very difficult.

There are a lot of folks, whether they claim the traditional faith of the church or not, for whom Christmas is a very dark time of the year. This is because Christmas raises those issues about ourselves and our relationships that are basic, such as our relationships to our family. It is a very family-oriented time of the year.

I think the good news of the story for those on the dark side of Christmas is the hope that is proclaimed that light is come into the world and the darkness cannot comprehend it. This is from John, chapter one.

It is a true light that has the power to enlighten our darkness.

The birth that is celebrated at Christmas, of Christ the Light, will only be the celebrated reality it was intended to be in proportion to the