Christmas is not over

I know, I know…it feels like it’s over out there in the world. The stores are still decorated, but the music has switched back to the usual stuff. The radio has changed back. No more Rudolph, no more Frosty.

But within the church year, things have only just started. We had our days of waiting, and now we have our feast…everyday our minds are drawn back to those first hours in a cave in Bethlehem, those first days and weeks when suddenly, Shepherds and Kings arrived at the edge and crept in, paying homage to a babe in swaddling clothes while his weary mother watched and pondered.

In the church we followed the tenderness and triumph of Christmas with the story of the first Martyr, Stephen, spattered with blood, stoned to death for blasphemy, the stoner’s cloaks piled in witness before the feet of a young man named Saul, who will soon find his own life changed.

I hope everyone’s Christmas Day was holy and wonderful. For me, at a vigil mass of Christmas Eve, I found my whole Advent brought to culmination during the priest’s homily, when he began, spontaneously, to recite the opening to the Gospel of John. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” God gives us his Word. To give one’s word, here on earth, even between men, is a grave, grave thing. For God to give his Word to us – it is beyond grave, it is transformative and transcendent.

And lucky me, our parish had Adoration, yesterday, and so we were able to contemplate the arrival of the shepherds, the songs of the angels, and the Holy Eucharist, “I am with you, even to the end of the earth…” “I am with you…” Thanks, Emmanuel! My prayer yesterday before the Blessed Sacrament was of huge thanksgiving for all of the good things in my life, in our world. And it was offered, over and over, for all who are in grief during this season, either through the loss of a child, a spouse, a much-loved friend…but especially for those who have lost children – I know that is a wound that does not close.

This week at Vespers, day after day, while the readings change, the psalmody and antiphons remain the same, and I love them all very much, but especially the first antiphon and psalm:

1st Antiphon:
You have been endowed from your birth with princely gifts; in eternal splendor, before the dawn of light on earth, I have begotten you.

Psalm 110: 15,7
The Lord’s revelation to my Master:
“Sit on my right:
your foes I will put beneath my feet.”

The Lord will weild from Zion
your scepter of power:
rule in the midst of all your foes

A prince from the day of your birth
on the holy mountains;
from the womb before the dawn I begot you

The Lord has sworn an oath he will not change.
“You are a priest forever,
a priest like Melchizedek of old!”

The Master standing at your right hand
will shatter kings in the day of his great wrath
He shall drink from the stream by the wayside
and therefore he shall lift up his head.

I have read commentaries suggesting that the last two lines, “He shall drink from the stream…he shall lift up his head,” are indecipherable, that they seem at discord with the rest of the psalm. I’m no scholar, so I can’t speak to it…but I know that the line resonates with me. In fact the whole verse does. The psalm begins with a reference to “my master…” and ends telling us that the Master, constantly by our side, will have great power…and that the master, like a strong buck, or an elk will never let down his guard…even while resting, while taking refreshment, the master is attuned to every snap of twig, every rustle of leaf – the master is ever vigilant and aware. And I love that.

So much is coming, of course. My favorite hymns of Christmas are Adeste Fideles, Angels we have heard on high and We Three Kings. The Roches have a terrific recording of We Three Kings, if you can get your hands on it. For now, it is good to contemplate how most of us in America, even the ones considered “poor” have many, many material goods and riches…it’s time to take stock of what we bring of them to God, for his use and glory. And it’s good to contemplate the gifts of the kings, and how they anticipated Christ’s life and death and burial – even here, in the opening of the story of salvation, we have the foreshadowing for all that will occur – soom Simeon will be warning Mary that her heart will be pierced with a sword of sorrow.

The days immediately after Christmas are as full and busy as the days before. We visit, we cook, we have a little adult libation, perhaps, and we begin to prepare to celebrate the new year. But the story has not ended. It is good to step outside of time and return to Bethlehem, when one gets the chance, to check in on the babe, and the mother, and the slightly baffled but loving father. I hope it’s a good week for all of you!

For me, there are houseguests and errands, and I know there are lots of emails waiting for me – I apologize if I am slow in answering them. One much-loved visitor is using my office as a bedroom, so my computer time is limited.