Submitted by Sr. Joan Scanlon, O.P., Interim Assistant to the President for Dominican Mission
The Christmas season overwhelms us with lights, sounds, images and oftentimes an excess of sensory stimulation. Tucked into the corners of this season there may be moments of silence, darkness and sometimes awareness and reflection.
In A Child’s Christmas in Wales, Dylan Thomas writes of Christmas eve and encountering the “close and holy darkness”. Deep in the darkness of the longest nights of the year, there can be special moments of silence. Time for the meaning of Christmas to slip into our consciousness. For Christians, Christmas is the revelation of the Incarnation, God’s word made flesh, piercing our darkness, giving us hope and calling us to a new way of loving and being.
In the quiet moments of Christmas, the Incarnation becomes real for us. It could be reading a Christmas letter from someone we have missed, seeing our children or grandchildren overcome with excitement, hearing a Christmas oratorio or even watching It’s a Wonderful Life for the umpteenth time. A moment when we turn down the volume and receive a glimpse of the revelation of God’s love.
One Christmas eve, after mass, I went to a pizza place where my young college friend, Juan, made me a dessert pizza with Christmas symbols in frosting. I ate the sugary pizza with his mother and younger brother and laughed about Christmas eve at Donatos. Who does that? I received the revelation of God’s love in a few special moments in a booth at Donatos. A revelation of the “everyday God” blessing me with love and laughter and community in an unexpected place and time. Christmas happened.
When did Christmas happen for you? When was God’s love revealed to you. It probably won’t end up in a Hallmark movie but it will give you a gift that can never be taken away and a hope for the New Year.
Take some time in the “close and holy darkness” to allow Christmas to happen.