|
Every year at All Saints' Cathedral's midnight mass, just like in churches all around the world, the lights are turned off and the congregation kneels to sing Silent Night. Having spent the holiday season rushing about, shopping and travelling and either visiting or hosting, the peaceful stillness of that moment is arresting. And into that stillness rises the sound of human voices, quietly singing about the birth of a baby. The melody and words are simple. The tone hushed and reverent. It melts me every time. I finish the song, if I'm even able to sing after the first verse, in a catharsis of joyful longing and with a moist face. I am never alone in this emotion...Silent Night draws a lot of joyful tears. Even devoid of Christian theology and the miracle of salvation through this fragile infant, the image of mother and child in the first breathless moment of life is perhaps the most moving in all our culture. There is love immeasurable there. The Nativity is sacred. Even as an atheist I felt that. When a theatre company I worked with staged a Christmas play featuring a battle scene in front of the manger, I could feel how wrong it was. Not believing the story one bit, I still felt that the cr�che was sacred and that the peace of that scene ought not to be mixed with violence of any kind. That's how powerful an icon the manger is. As a Christian I now have a larger view. Jesus' earthly life ended in so much suffering, so much violence. He freely accepted that violent death. But in the manger he is loved, protected and cherished. Otherwise, what has he given up when lifted on the cross? Tolkien, a devout Christian, knew this. His story begins in the Shire, his version of the ultimate English country village. If the Shire is not idyllic then Frodo's willingness to leave it, to march into the very heart of hell, is less meaningful. The power of Silent Night is in its simple tranquility. It's something we long for in our own lives, to be safe and loved. This simple little song affects so many of us because our world affords so little in the way of peace. Yet here it is, offered to us in the birth of a baby. Christmas is very close now. My wish for you, friend, family or unknown visitor, is one of peace. May you find peace in the midst of your busy life, and may you offer peace to the people around you. And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. Luke 2:9-14 |
