I follow the news pretty closely. Thanks to online websites, I follow about ten news sites every day, many from outside of the US. I like to be informed. But staying informed comes at a price.
Much of the news from around the world is not hopeful. I don’t need to make the list of all the horrible events and the ways politicians are consumed by their lust for power and greed. It’s not just in the United States that politicians would prefer to see the country fail rather than give up power and prestige.
Perhaps as a way to counter-balance the tension and tragedy in the world, the news has also reported that people put up Christmas decorations much earlier this year. In our house, we put up outdoor lights over the last weekend in November. We usually wait until about the second week in December because we keep the lights up for the Twelve Days of Christmas ending on January 6. But this year, we joined our neighbors in lighting up the neighborhood a bit earlier than usual.
This year more people will have simpler holiday celebrations. Many churches will offer Christmas Eve services virtually and many families will mark the holiday with just their immediate household. For many people, it just won’t seem like Christmas because we are making deliberate choices to protect and care for each other in this pandemic rather than enjoying holiday parties and gatherings with colleagues, friends, and family.
Perhaps this Christmas, it more important than ever to remember something significant about the mystery of Christmas. While we mark the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem two thousand years ago and recount the legends for the Christian sacred stories, we also mark the spiritual birth of Christ in the world today. In my mind, remembering the birth of Jesus in the manger is sweet and prosaic, but what’s really world-changing is that the Christ is born anew in our world and in our lives. Christmas isn’t just an historic event but a celebration of the transformation of our lives.
As we approach Christmas Day, perhaps it’s best to simply use the words of one of the great mystics of the Christian tradition who also lived in troubled-times: Teresa of Avila who lived in the 16th Century. Teresa expressed clearly that the presence of Christ in our world is up to us and not about a historic birth.
Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.
Perhaps for this Christmas, consider that Christ is born into our world in and through you. When we allow ourselves to be transformed into Christ, then perhaps there will be peace on earth and good will among all people.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay