HAVE WE SUNG or heard this lovely Advent hymn at home or in church these Advent weeks?
O come, Divine Messiah,
The world in silence waits the day
When hope shall sing its triumph,
And sadness flee away.
Dear Savior haste!
Come, come to earth,
Dispel the night and show Thy face,
And bid us hail the dawn of grace.
O Come, Divine Messiah,
The world in silence waits the day
When hope shall sing its triumph,
And sadness flee away.
The icon of the Mother of God seen here is found in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. A woman is reaching out to touch the face of the icon. We can imagine she is standing on tip-toe, symbolizing the world's ache and longing for the peaceful-joy expressed in the face of the Mother of God - contrasted with the dark shadow. Dispel the night and show Thy face.
To enter the Church of the Nativity one must crouch down and bend over - the door being too small to accommodate an adult. Perhaps the original intent was to keep out enemy soldiers on horseback. Unconsciously however, the little door invites us to consider our own littleness, our condition as servants before God, to leave our pride and power outside. Today perhaps the gesture will be lost on many people who only express irritation at the inconvenience and discomfort. Someone might say, "Oh, what a silly door."
Here we are a few days before Christmas with news of a recent attack upon a school in Pakistan - over one hundred forty five staff and students as young as seven years of age, murdered. And sadness flee away.
