| | Marvelous SilenceI know it's very far from Christmas Eve; but Advent is about to begin,
Christmas is already running in my blood. Advent is different from the
Christmas season, rather as Lent is different from Easter, though not,
I think, so stark a contrast. Advent is a time of anticipation,
preparation, fasting, and prayer as we prepare ourselves for the birth
of the Lord, prepare to receive him into our world anew.
For
as long as I can remember, I've had a very distinct picture in my mind
of what Christmas Eve should look like, probably at least partially
thanks to years of Christmas cards filled with cryptic signatures from
long-lost relatives. Christmas Eve is a deep nightliness, midnight
blue, scattered with brilliant white stars--it has to be a clear night
for the wise men and their super-speed camels (to get there in time for
Christmas, you see). And it's still--a marvelous stillness and silence
as the earth gathers herself for the coming of the child of Christmas.
If
there is one thing we learn on the silent, silver blueing of Christmas
Eve, it should be to drink of the marvelous silence, and not just of
the angel chorus, so alarming to the shepherds. That smallness of
intimate silence is our humanity and the largeness of the bursting
angel glory is the divinity; both are the mystery of Christmas. It's
what's so wrong about a very loud Advent--we pass the stillness by. We
don't meditate on this coming Lord, and crowd him out.
|
| | Posted 11/25/2007 10:54 PM - 7 views - 0 comments
- recommend
  - recs0
- give stars
- votes0
- share
- email
 - sent0
|
