Christmas is around the corner
and we will soon sing the carols which have got a range of emotions. We will
sing carols of joy and serenity in a world full of noise and distractions. Let
us explore the message behind these carols. These carols are inviting us to
grow in faith and to experience the joy and significance of Christmas time even
in the midst of darkness. Let us experience peace despite the turmoil of life,
and begin to see our committed Capuchin life from a completely different
perspective. Let us receive the transforming message of Christmas deep down in
our hearts to last long and search for increasingly transforming experiences.
Let our self-centered hearts not try to find something to fill them with, to
own and to manipulate others for our gain. Let our hearts glorify not ourselves
but God. For Capuchins, it is a time of re-focusing on the priorities of life,
as well as a time of celebration.
As we sing carols this Christmas
time we need to listen to the inner voice by quieting our hearts. Do we need to
go outside to seek silence and peace? And yet, silence and peace, however they
are sought, are elusive. If peace is a matter of escaping from the world,
rather than embracing the world and human experiences, then it is not the Peace
that these carols sing about. Let us be alive in Christ during this Christmas.
Let us embrace and be embraced by the living Lord of peace and joy.
The world deceives us; we
deceive ourselves. We are afraid to be vulnerable, because in our hearts lies
the "world of sin" that we care not to admit. The Bible tells us that
Christ was not only truly God, he was truly human as well. In fact he is the
only true human being who has ever walked on this earth. He was the essence of
being. Christ's life was a life of vulnerability. He lay in the manger, naked
and vulnerable. Later, he would amaze the religious priests by actually
touching the sick, living the life of a homeless person and spending time with the
"sinners" and outcasts of society. He shed tears of anguish when his
friend Lazarus died, revealing how much the fallenness of the world grieved
him. And he was truly naked and vulnerable at the cross, taking on the shame
that you and I are so afraid of. He was not afraid to show love when he fully
knew that this love would cost him his life. Instead of embracing his love, we
would reject it, and ultimately betray him (Peter betrayed him three
times...how many more times have we betrayed him?). In our darkness, we desire
silence from God rather than the silence in God that allows us to hear his
voice, the voice of joy and peace.
We would rather kill the joy
than pay the cost of peace that comes from the cross, and our betrayal hurt him
because Christ felt more deeply than any of us. You see, he was sinless and
therefore fully, and truly, alive. He was crushed, as the prophet Isaiah
foretold some 500 years prior to Christ's birth, for our iniquities.
God has promised to transform
you and me, if we give our lives to him. Fullness of experience comes by making
our lives vulnerable to Christ. But paradoxically, God's peace propels us into
the world, rather than causing us to escape from the world. As we quiet our
hearts before God, we hear, by faith, the voices of angels shouting for joy
through the silence. And those trumpet sounds penetrate all the earth,
transforming our vision. Christmas is historic evidence of heaven touching the
earth when Christ, by being vulnerable to the world, transformed our essence of
being.
Are you "alive" this Christmas? You can be.
Remember that, "where meek souls will receive Him still, the dear Christ
enters in." This "living gift" is yours to receive and open.
That is the good news brought to us by the babe in the manger, the epitome of
joy and peace, the essence of being.
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