“Nor indeed was that first Christmas season one of peace or joy. For the Christ child came as a light into great darkness. What darkness! There was no peace, no joy, no rest, no love… only great desire, great crying, tenacious faith, flickering hope. Is it not when mankind’s need is most apparent that the Promise is released? When the pain is most intense that the Child is born? When the case is most dismal, and darkness most bleak, that God’s Spirit is sent to shine forth in brilliance? …Oh, I hope so. I do hope so.”
You will forgive me, I hope, if I depart slightly from my usual fare at this special time of the year. At all times through history men have felt that their state was the most desperate and difficult that had ever been. To some extent I suppose that is true, each generation faces their own great tribulation exceeding and unlike any other faced by those who have come before. Even so, this season of merriment and festivity is but a brief respite and diversion from the difficult times in which we live.
Terrorists who somehow see virtue in the killing of the innocent, teenagers who invent a game from knocking out unsuspecting pedestrians, the annual spectacle of Black Friday brawls as we celebrate the birth of the King of Peace, whole nations intent on bringing about the Apocalypse on the razor’s edge of possessing nuclear weapons, our national debt at such an astronomical level that most Americans could not even write the number down, much less pay it down; needless to say, looking past Christmas, the future is scary.
And so we look to the luminaries of our times to rescue us. Chris Christie, Hillary Clinton, Rand Paul, Kathleen Sebelius, Marco Rubio… Barack Obama? We need a great hero, but greatness and heroism rarely arise from the halls of royalty. As with that first Christmas eve, in times of darkness light arises from unexpected places. Our truest heroes will not be found in Washington. Look for greatness in your friends, your families, your neighbors… for there you will find the light that will lead us into a brighter future. It is in humble places that a glorious destiny is born.
As Abraham Lincoln implored in the Gettysburg Address, “That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” Lincoln insisted that the words that he spoke paled in effect to the deeds that were done by the soldiers who gave their very lives on that battlefield. Likewise our leaders in Washington are really just followers of the stuff the nation is made of, her people. And from the people a voice will be heard, and Washington will hear. It isn’t easy, Gettysburg wasn’t easy, but it will be done, it always is; Destiny takes detours but always arrives at its appointed destination.
IMHO: As in the dark days of the Roman occupation, hope is a difficult thing to find under the heavy hand of despair. Back then, a few arose, misguided rebels, who thought Rome could be defeated with her own tactics, military might. They were the original terrorists, using violence against violence, but left to themselves their situation was hopeless. But then, from the unlikely starting place of a animal’s shelter, in the darkest of nights, a teenage girl and an uneducated laborer welcomed the birth of their child, the greatest teacher mankind has ever known. It would be his teachings that would change people to their very core, his teachings that would ultimately conquer the oppressors, and lay the foundations for a future nation.
“In the stillness of the endless night,
A match is struck, a lonely candle lit.
In the humility of a mother’s womb,
With the splendor of the Universe,
A child is born, a star shines forth.
Who could know that this was He?
The Word, the act, the breath of life.
Who could know the sun had risen,
In the sparkle of an infant’s eyes?”
Merry Christmas, and God bless us, every one.
