How the Light penetrates the people who walk in darkness

 Blessed be God who animates our lives and causes our witness to the birth of the Light of the World. May we witness this mysterious manifestation of glory. Amen

I confess to being a bit obsessed with storybooks, especially the ones which speak to child and adult alike. There can be a profound wisdom there and the fact that few words and pictures can speak volumes of meaning brings me closer to a still holy moment.

Tonight is like that storybook moment. The message and meaning are conveyed as much through music and silence, poetry and scripture, beauty and sacred image, as through any words I might come up with. 

My job is to shine a light on the holy pages of the Incarnation.

One of the lines from such a storybook goes like this: When you feel lost said the bear to the rabbit, try to remember what makes you feel found”

Tonight we are found

By a tiny baby

Who is Christ the Lord

The words of the prophet poet Isaiah echo this calling home: A people who have walked in darkness have seen a great light. 

Be it by star or by the radiant beams from the holy face

We who have walked in darkness now greet the Light of the World

We who have walked in darkness under shrouds of fear, anxiety and grief are now found by the Radiance, the manifestation of glory, of the Word made flesh which dwells among us

Which dwells within us

This light finds us with its dawning redeeming grace

Light is an amazing scriptural metaphor.

Like the meaning expressed with no or few words in a storybook, Light is often God’s silent way of exposing the Mystery of creation, incarnation and even resurrection

We ought to pay attention to the meaning Light conveys.

Light has guided and framed our Advent journey. the candles lit to hope and peace and joy and love surround a greater light, the light of Christ. This ultimate light is saving grace.

And like all light which actually contains all colors, from indigo blue to red, from short to long and everything in between

So the Light of Christ embraces all creation, all forms, types, abilities and gifts.

Like light refracted through a prism, the Light of Christ, is refracted and reflected into and upon all the world, all colors from hope to peace to joy to love.

Since Genesis, the creation, God has sent light into the world. God has caused light to shine in darkness, and light to guide those in the wilderness. 

That divine light is made flesh at Christmas to at least assist us in the realization that we too are of this light. We are not mere observers and appreciators of the baby’s radiance, we who are made in God’s image are to imitate the reflecting of holy light on the broken hearted, the sick, the poor, the oppressed, the lonely

God’s light is our identity

A weary and depressed parishioner once questioned her priest about her fear of losing or missing the message o Christmas.

The response: God is radiantly illuminating us in ways we cannot see or feel or know

At Christmas and at the dawning of all days the divine light of the world is coming to us and through us. Moreover as in creation, as in incarnation, God will send an ultimate light in the end of times.

But for now, on this most holy night, may we gaze at the Radiance and become the holy beams ourselves. May we let the Light of the World into our very being.

I offer this blessing by Jan Richardson which might be titled How the Light Gets in Our Bones:

How the Stars Get in Your Bones

A Blessing

Sapphire, diamond, emerald, quartz:

think of every hard thing

that carries its own brilliance,

shining with the luster that comes

only from uncountable ages

in the earth, in the dark,

buried beneath unimaginable weight,

bearing what seemed impossible,

bearing it still.

And you, shouldering the grief

you had thought so solid, so impermeable,

the terrible anguish

you carried as a burden

now become—

who can say what day it happened?—

a beginning.

See how the sorrow in you

slowly makes its own light,

how it conjures its own fire.

See how radiant

even your despair has become

in the grace of that sun.

Did you think this would happen

by holding the weight of the world,

by giving in to the press of sadness

and time?

I tell you, this blazing in you—

it does not come by choosing

the most difficult way, the most daunting;

it does not come by the sheer force

of your will.

It comes from the helpless place in you

that, despite all, cannot help but hope,

the part of you that does not know

how not to keep turning

toward this world,

to keep turning your face

toward this sky,

to keep turning your heart

toward this unendurable earth,

knowing your heart will break

but turning it still.

I tell you,

this is how the stars

get in your bones.

This is how the brightness

makes a home in you,

as you open to the hope that burnishes

every fractured thing it finds

and sets it shimmering,

a generous light that will not cease,

no matter how deep the darkness grows,

no matter how long the night becomes.

Still, still, still

the secret of secrets

keeps turning in you,

becoming beautiful,

becoming blessed,

kindling the luminous way

by which you will emerge,

carrying your shattered heart

like a constellation within you,

singing to the day

that will not fail to come.

May the divine brightness make its home in you…

May you behold who you are; become what you receive…

Merry Christmas! God bless us everyone!