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I woke yesterday morning really wanting someone to give me the answer. How do you celebrate Christmas when your spiritual life and your sense of identity are broken into \u201cbefore\u201d and \u201cafter?\u201d<\/p>\n
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For me, it was the Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report. I know other people who were similarly broken by that report. I know still more who experienced similar moments of fracture in response to other catastrophic failures in their religious communities. We still believe, but we don\u2019t know how we can return to those communities. We want to worship, but we\u2019re in exile.<\/p>\n
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Looking for answers, I\u2019ve been rereading P\u00e1draig O\u2019Tuama\u2019s wonderful book of poems,\u00a0Readings from the Book of Exile.\u00a0<\/em>But these are his answers. They necessarily can\u2019t be mine. I have to find my own answers. I have to make my own peace, and I\u2019m just not there yet.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I know I\u2019m not the only person in this space. I suspect that, if you\u2019re a reader of\u00a0Sick Pilgrim,\u00a0<\/em>then you probably recognize this space in your own life.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
We used to run a series called\u00a0Things Keeping Us Alive<\/em>, in which we wrote about small joys and comforts. On this 24th of December, when my husband and I are still deciding whether or not we\u2019ll go to Christmas Eve Mass, it is a comfort to me to remember that Christ came for the exiles. That most traditional of Advent songs tells us so:<\/p>\nO come, O come Emmanuel, <\/em><\/p>\nRansom those who mourn in lonely exile here<\/em><\/p>\n until the<\/em>\u00a0Son of God appear.<\/em><\/p>\nWe are the exiles, waiting for God to appear \u2013 in our world, in our lives, in our Church. Maybe our consciences won\u2019t let us attend church; maybe we feel like outsiders when we\u2019re sitting in the pews.<\/p>\n
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But precisely because we feel exiled, we can be assured that Christ is for us. Christmas is ours. Rejoicing may feel like a big ask, but Christ has come for us just the same. We are the people in darkness, and the light is for us.<\/p>\n
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Image courtesy of Pixabay.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3402,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nFor the Exiles on Christmas Eve<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\" I woke yesterday morning really wanting someone to give me the answer. 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