Photo courtesy of Pixabay<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>The Boy<\/strong><\/p>\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>Last night Santa brought me a drum!\u00a0 I\u2019m not very good at it yet, because I\u2019m only five, but I do<\/em> love it.\u00a0 This morning the priest told us, during mass, that the Baby Jesus had just been born in a stable in a place called Bethlehem.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know where that is but it must be in some part of Cork City.\u00a0 The priest said that Jesus was very poor and couldn\u2019t afford to be born in a hospital \u2013 like I was \u2013 but that he was also a king \u2013 of all the world.\u00a0 The priest said we should visit the Baby Jesus and bring him some gifts.\u00a0 I asked my great-grandmother about that and she told me she knew exactly where the Baby Jesus was and promised to take me to visit him.<\/p>\nWe found him, and his mother Mary and Joseph and some animals, in the life-sized cr\u00e8che at Saints Peter and Paul\u2019s church in the center of Cork City.\u00a0 My great-grandmother exchanged some pleasantries with Joseph and cooed at the baby, but her main interest was in Mary.\u00a0 In fact, she spoke at length every day with Mary about mother stuff and great-grandmother stuff.<\/p>\n
While she was busy I decided to play my drum for Baby Jesus.\u00a0 I still wasn\u2019t very good at it, but I gave it my best shot.\u00a0 He began to smile toothlessly and to gurgle.\u00a0 I\u2019m not very good either at understanding gurgle but I took it to mean that he approved of my gift.<\/strong><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Young Man<\/strong><\/p>\nYears later, during mass, I found a portal and entered a time warp, traveling into the past at a dizzying speed.\u00a0 I found myself in a Middle-Eastern city.\u00a0 I heard the sound of drummers, but this was chilling, fear-instilling military<\/em> drumming.\u00a0 A crowd was approaching, following a band of soldiers who were vindictively prodding a criminal forward with their spears.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t look like the criminal type, but you never know.\u00a0 Swept along by the mob, I decided to take a closer look.\u00a0 Holy God!\u00a0 I recognized the same eyes I had seen in Saints Peter and Paul\u2019s church, so many years ago at the other side of the portal.\u00a0 I was dumbfounded.\u00a0 When I came to my senses, I followed the noise and found that he had been crucified; skewered grotesquely on a jibbet.\u00a0 Then I saw his mother.\u00a0 I recognized her<\/em> immediately.\u00a0 There was no sign of Joseph \u2013 perhaps he had died already.<\/p>\nI stood a little way from the crowd, and softly began to play my drum.\u00a0 In Ireland, we are taught three kinds of music \u2013 Goltra\u00ed<\/em> (music to make people weep with nostalgia for home), Geantra\u00ed<\/em> (music to make people happy or to make them laugh) and Suantra\u00ed<\/em> (lullabies to soothe pain and induce restful sleep.)\u00a0 I began to play my own favorite Suantra\u00ed music, and as I did, his mother turned around and we looked soulfully at each other.\u00a0 She nodded gratefully.\u00a0 Then he<\/em> looked at me and in spite of the searing pain and the fear of being abandoned by his father, the light in his great heart shone.\u00a0 It\u2019s hard to imagine a crucified man smiling; but he did.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Old Man<\/strong><\/p>\nSince then many more years have passed and now I am an old man, getting ready to die.\u00a0 I am sitting in a chair, out of doors, in the warm sunlight, wrapped in a comforting blanket.\u00a0 A grandniece of mine has been lovingly looking after me these last few weeks, but just now she is indoors attending to some chores.\u00a0 And that was when he chose for us to meet the third<\/em> time.\u00a0 By now I would have recognized him anywhere.\u00a0 He looked younger than when I had seen him last and his very being glowed with a transpersonal light.\u00a0 I bade him sit down; which he did.\u00a0 Whenever my grandniece reappeared, I intended to ask her to bring him a cup of tea and a piece of plum pudding \u2013 it\u2019s just a few days after Christmas.<\/p>\nOn a whim, I decided to play my drum for him.\u00a0 With old, gnarled fingers I began to beat out some Geantra\u00ed \u2013 I wanted to see him laugh.\u00a0 But soon my old fingers got tired and the sticks fell to the ground.\u00a0 He bent down and picked them up; then he asked, \u201cMay I?\u201d\u00a0 I nodded and he took the drum from my lap.\u00a0 I have never heard anybody play like he did.\u00a0 Honoring my mood, he began with Geantra\u00ed, but subtly and over time, it morphed into Goltra\u00ed, evoking such longing for home that tears rolled down my cheeks.\u00a0 Finally, he moved seamlessly into Suantra\u00ed.\u00a0 I closed my eyes and suddenly 10,000 stars went supernova, exploding inside my skull and releasing unimaginable light!\u00a0 All boundaries dissolved and the ego faded like a morning mist under the loving attention of the Sun.<\/p>\n
I wonder who will wake up?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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