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Silent night, renewed
"Silent Night" may be the words to our most popular Christmas song, but they don't describe our Christmas season. The days leading up to our most action-packed holiday are dominated by a frenzy of gift-giving and the stress of travel, family and merrymaking. Living through Christmas is enough to make an entire country long, like Tiger Woods, for an "indefinite break."
If Christmas is to be meaningful today, it needs a spiritual makeover. It needs an inward turn.
First, hold the eggnog. We need some inner silence to hear transcendence calling. To reach inward is first to listen with all one's being -- to quiet the noise and distraction of the world and to open one's self at the simplest level to the presence of the divine. It is to let go of words and concepts. The mystic Teillard de Chardin wrote, "God needs to hollow us out, to empty us in order to make room for himself."
And in the empty lies the possibility of feeling full to overflowing--full of love, full of being. From stillness, one learns to see with the eyes of love. At the center, one discovers that God's first gift is within us and more, it is us.
There lies the message of a Christmas of the heart. It is among the most universal of all religious mysteries: it is an invitation to live in the presence of God. The traditional story announces what we are asked to experience: Good news! God is among us. Emmanuel.
The newborn baby may be insignificant and poor in the eyes of world, but with the inner eye of a love-drenched heart, the baby is a shower of light and eternity. He is Christianity's unbridled love letter to all humanity-- an invitation to all creation to live in the precious joy of transcendence in the here and now.
To welcome God as a gift is the beginning of welcoming every gift. To experience God as joy is the beginning of experiencing a joy that can last a lifetime. To sense God as love is to begin to see a universe bathed in love itself. To say "yes" to that indescribable, unnameable, absolute of creation is the first step in faith -- an existential "yes" to life itself -- restless, suffering, beautiful, awesome life. God, by whatever name, is God. And God is here.
So this year, I wish everyone, whether they be Christian or another religion or no religion at all, a silent night--or at least a few silent moments. Perhaps that silence will help create an opening where the joy of the divine presence will spring forth in song and celebration, maybe through hearing the soaring chords of a gospel choir or the speckled crackling of a dried wood fire.
What joy to hear the angels from within singing, "I bring you good news!" What joy to look anew at the life all around us and be able to say to each person we meet from the depths of our being, "Peace on earth. Good will to all."
A silent night is a holy night. Emmanuel. God is here.
Merry Christmas.
By
Timothy Shriver
|
December 24, 2009; 12:43 AM ET
| Category:
Religion From the Heart
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Next: Disabled have a dream, too
Posted by: thebump | December 25, 2009 10:40 AM
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Also missing the H.
Posted by: thebump | December 25, 2009 10:41 AM
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test
Posted by: ccnl1 | December 26, 2009 12:09 AM
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Obviously, Mr. Shriver does not like to shop or decorate for the holidays. Nor does he do the proper research before he writes. Had he, he would have discovered the following reality about the the holidays:
Christmas, the embellished story of the birth of a simple, preacher man named Jesus.
As per most contemporary NT exegetes, his parents were Mary and Joseph although some say Jesus was a mamzer, the result of a pre-marital relationship between Mary and a Roman soldier.
http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/theories.html
Jesus was not born in Bethlehem at least the one we are familiar with and there were no pretty wingie thingies singing from on high, no slaughter of the innocents by Herod, no visiting wise men and no escape to Egypt.
"John P. Meier - Professor at Notre Dame
Meier [Marginal Jew I,216-219] notes that the "affirmation of Jesus' descent from David might easily be placed alongside his birth at Bethlehem as a theologoumenon (a theological insight narrated as a historical event) if it were not for the fact that numerous and diverse streams of NT tradition also affirm Jesus' Davidic lineage."
"Meier suggests that the belief that Jesus was "son of David" may have been held by Jesus' followers prior to his death, with his resurrection then being understood as a form of enthronement. However, he notes that such messianic views, whatever their provenance, cannot prove Jesus was "literally, biologically of Davidic stock."
http://wiki.faithfutures.org/index.php?title=007_Of_Davids_Lineage
Conclusion: the holyday of Christmas is historically a non-event. Ditto for the Feast of the Magi and the solemnity of Mary aka New Years day.
Kwanza
"Kwanzaa, which will be celebrated for the 44th time in 2009, was established by Dr. Maulana Karenga. The seven-day festival (December 26 – January 1) is secular, not religious, and aims to strengthen African cultural identity and community values while providing a spiritual alternative to the commercialism of Christmas."
Chanukah (Hanukkah)
"Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, is one of the most joyous times of the Jewish year. The reason for the celebration is twofold (both dating back to c. 165 BCE): the miraculous military victory of the small, ill-equipped Jewish army over the ruling Greek Syrians, who had banned the Jewish religion and desecrated the Temple; and the miracle of the small cruse of consecrated oil, which burned for eight days in the Temple's menorah instead of just one."
"Originally a minor holiday, it has become more lavishly celebrated as a result of its proximity to Christmas."
Some candles burn for weeks so the menorah "miracle" is hardly miraculous.
Rabbi Wolpe can probably give us his take on the historical validity
Posted by: ccnl1 | December 26, 2009 12:18 AM
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Dr. Shriver,
It is true that there is only one l in Tielhard, as well as an h. It is further the case that Emanuel is spelled with one m.
That said, I think you do excellent, excellent work, and I thank you for it.
Farnaz
Posted by: Farnaz1Mansouri1 | December 27, 2009 4:02 AM
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Only one L in Teilhard.
Odd that the author's advanced state of mindfulness does not enhance the proofreading.
Pleasant thoughts all the same.