Thursday, December 1, 2011

Christmas

CHRISTMAS EVE VESPERS


Wintry day – low heavy

clouds pour rain down on the city –

winds are sharp at times –

luckily – rain washes away snow - sloppy ice –

heaviness hangs over all.

I feel it but it is not the whole story –

tomorrow is Someone’s birthday –

light shines in the night.

Darkness touches our world –

Wall Street collapse – scandals – unemployment

endless wars - more to come.

Eagerly, I look for the light –

Christmas vespers – boys’ and men’s choirs –

powerful organ – incense –

song - music wash over me.

I feel limp – I grasp out for

 hope the birthday brings.

My heart beats – chest is tight –

tears fill my eyes –

tears that await hope to dry them.

Music - voices give me a glimpse of

another world – Jesus is born –

not to leave us alone –

despite it all, warm hands embrace us.

Robert Trabold

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COMING OF CHRISTMAS

Robert Trabold


            As the year comes to a close in a short time, we come to celebrate the lovely feast of Christmas. It is a time of much activity with people and society but it should also be time of prayer and reflection so that we can savor and take fruit from the advent of Jesus on earth.  This reflection on the meaning of Christmas is important for us because we feel down with all the problems in our contemporary world and country. Jesus came to bring peace but when we look around us, we see too many wars that never seem to end. Politicians before the election say that they want to stop the fighting but when they get into office, there is little action taken to bring peace and end the conflicts.  We are also worried by the many economic problems that plague our country, the recession, unemployment, foreclosures, inordinate power of banks and large corporations on the policies of our land, etc.  So all of these things lay on us and we wonder where all of this is to go and we do not see things getting better in the near future. 

            So in face of all this darkness, it is important for us to reflect on the coming of Christmas and what it means to us and our world. Those of us in the contemplative prayer movements should be faithful to our daily contemplation and see what the divine will reveal to us in the coming weeks.  We live in the flux of our daily life on earth with its many activities and obligations.  These can be very demanding and take much of our attention.  But with our discipline of silence where we take 20 minutes twice daily to meditate in silence, we put ourselves into contact with the spiritual world which is our strength and orientates us to live in the world. In our silent prayer, we calm down and repeat the mantra.  In the quiet and apparent nothingness, we have an encounter with the divine who is the ground of our being. It is also a meeting of love where the Lord calls us to respond faithfully to his invitation and wanting our friendship. God does not want to abandon us in the world with its many problems and confusion but calls us to a relationship which is like a rudder on a ship. The Lord wants to guide us in a friendship which will get us through life despite all of the difficulties.

            In the Christmas season, we have a special revelation of the divine entering our life and the world. Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Palestine many years ago and still is present in our lives and the world. He was a good man who preached and healed people in the villages and towns of his time. He died an unjust death but continues to be present and alive in the world and our lives as the Risen Lord. In the Christmas story, we see all the details of his birth and the reaction of the shepherds and the three kings to his coming. It is an amazing story of the divine manifesting its presence in the world and it touches us to this very day. The beautiful story of Christmas helps us in our meditation because we understand more deeply whom are we meeting in the silence of our contemplative prayer.

            In the silence of our meditation, we encounter a presence who calls us and who is infinite love.  God does not want to abandon us to the comings and goings of a human life and our relationship with the divine in an anchor of our life and opens up for us new vistas of living.  God is love and offers this to all men and women.  Our life is only complete when we feel that some one loves us on earth and will walk with us during the years.  If we are faithful to our daily meditation, we will grow in the awareness of how the divine loves us and asks us to respond. This relationship then is the foundation of our life as no other human being or object can be. People and events of our years of earth come and go but the Lord is always there waiting for us to meet him on our silent meditation. We have a lover who chases us in the world and wants to be close to us. The divine offers us a faithful love that will never fail and in a way that no other human person can do for us.

            This vision of such an overflowing divine love for us is what becomes very manifest in the beautiful Christmas season.  Jesus, the Savior, becomes visible and in him, we see that love of God coming out of the darkness and into the light of the world. In Jesus, we can touch and see the spiritual life that is offered to us.  This manifestation now of his presence and advent should give us hope as we close this year and look forward to the new one.  We feel every day the problems and tensions of our contemporary world and country. Many times, we feel discouraged and do not know where it will all go. Endless wars, unemployment, foreclosures, corruption and greed in our government, banks and corporations, etc, overwhelm us.  Where do we turn? We have to turn to the Jesus who meets us each day in our daily meditation and who loves us and our world. He is the source of hope. He will not forget us and comes each year in the Christmas season. Let us not lose the opportunity to meet him in this lovely time.

           
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