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way in which we have prepared f<J? itOne
of the remarkable things to me about Christmas is the way il happened and that what is has come to symbolize for history is not the way any of us would have planned itt
- Specifically, that a child would be birthed to Jewish peasants in the most unsanitary of conditions admist the very people who were enrolling themselves for a census. These people were not conscious of what had happened.
This whole scene is one that in modern times plays out all the time - namely, that a birth has taken place. This birth has the power to change us, but we are not fully conscious of it.
One of my hunches is that we en? joy some of our darknesses and are not ready for the brightness of Christ’s light to show us a new way.,
The meaning of the story to a person has a lot to do with where they happen to be on their own pilgrimmage. I guess for me this year, the Christmas story’s loudest message is the message of peace.
My first thought about the peace that is present is not necessarily the cessation of outer hostilities in the world - although that is a hope of mine - but that there is an inner peace that accompanies birth that can sustain us amidst the outer turmoil that seems to dominate our world.
Christ symbolizes to me that the coming together of all the opposites in ourselves and the world we have trouble living with. These opposites are illustrated in the Scripture. There is light and darkness, righteousness and unrighteousness, good and evil, truth and lying.
The symbol we have in our tradition is the cross. Its vertical and horitzontal dimensions represent our relations to one another on one plane and our relationship with God on another. All the points converge in the center, where there is Christ.
So the tensions that we have trouble living with within ourselves can only be transcended in a person’s incorporation of Christ into their lives.
Any new birth that takes place is accompanied by pain. But as we get distanced from it, it can take on new meaning in our memories of it.
To me, the most important thing, or the last thing, is that Christmas - the Christ event - demands a response from us. The reason I can say that is that birth always demands a response.”
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