ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL AND SOOTHING
This was sent to me from Fergal over in Ireland, my SVG volunteer partner in SVG. We know it by
"Lo, How A Rose 'Er Blooming," but this video adds a Irish touch - instruments and voices.
Reprinted from The Record December 17, 2020
Suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host…praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom His favor rests.”
Luke 2:13-14
As I think about all of
you who have attended any of my seven Blue Christmas Masses, and those of you
who would have attended this year if not for COVID, I am aware of so much
sadness, loss and grief that I really don’t know where to start!
I thought long and hard
about whether to cancel this year’s Blue Christmas Mass, but I concluded that
it might be the safer thing to do. One of the suggestions for replacing it was
to publish what I would have said that night in The Record for people to
read, while hoping things will be better next year.
Every year, I have tried
to find something in the Christmas readings that speak to those who are
experiencing sadness and grief during the holidays. This year I want to focus
on the singing angels in Luke’s account of the birth of Jesus.
In Luke’s version of the
Gospel, Jesus is presented to us as a God with a big heart, a God who embraces
all, especially the poor, the left out, women, children, the sick and the those
going through pain and loss. Jesus is reported as crying in John's gospel when
his close friend, Lazarus, died.
A perfect example of this
tenderness is Luke’s inclusion of singing angels at the birth of Jesus. His
Jewish readers would have known that if Jesus had been born at home in Nazareth,
the neighbors would have swarmed the house with musical instruments, ready to
burst into song, when it was announced that “it’s a boy!” In the absence of
joyful neighbors, Luke has singing angels filling in to replace what was
missing, bringing joy to the holy family’s sad predicament and reminding
readers that God is with us, even in situations like theirs. “Emmanuel” means “God-with-us!”
The first Christmas is a portrait
of separation, poverty, pain and tragedy. In spite of that, what the angels saw
brought them to singing. They saw through that dark veil and saw a savior being
born, relief from sin and a glorious destination for God’s people.
Friends, we often tend to
forget that God is present when things are going well and tend to think God is
absent when things are going badly. The truth is that God is also there with us
even in the bad times. Luke makes that gloriously obvious in his touching
stories.
As I contemplated how
this story of the singing angels at Jesus’ birth, might apply to those of you
who are grieving, either from losses of years past or from losses only
recently, several things came to mind.
First, do not stifle your
grief. If you suppress grief too much it can well redouble. Second, the more
loss you feel, the more grateful you should be for whoever it was that you had
to lose. It just means that you had something worth grieving over. Third, if
you feel like crying, go ahead! As Patty Loveless used to sing, “Cry and cry if
it makes you feel better.” Research has found that shedding emotional tears,
besides being self-soothing, releases oxytocin and endorphins. These chemicals reduce
physical pain and ease emotional pain. Fourth, grief is really an aching heart
trying to reconcile itself with a painful reality that you find extremely hard
to accept. Reconciliation with reality takes time.
Last of all, someday soon
you will hopefully come to realize that your loss is actually gain for those for
whom you grieve. They are in God’s embrace. As you grieve your loss, as you feel
your hurt and as you shed your tears, know that they are now part of that same multitude
of the heavenly host that sang at the birth of Jesus. Just as that heavenly choir looked down on that
pathetic scene around the birth Jesus – a
poor young couple away from home without their family’s support and having to give
birth to the Savior of the world in a smelly animal stall – they look down on
your grief and sing to you of the love that God has for you and your loved ones!
Finally, if you found any
of these words helpful, feel free to cut them out, copy them and send them
anyone who might benefit from them. For more weekly encouragement go to this blog: www.FatherKnott.com
No comments:
Post a Comment