Rabbit Awake

In the icon of Christ's Nativity each of the story figures is wide awake—the Holy Mother, Joseph, the angels and the shepherds, the midwives, the magi traveling by starlight, the cow and the donkey. And way down on the bottom (look deeply) along the edge of the icon, is sometimes found a small rabbit. Even she is wide awake to the great mystery of God drawing near to us, not to our condemnation and extinction, but in restorative love.

On Christmas Eve, on my way over to the chapel a bit before dusk, a small brown rabbit ran across the lawn at the edge of the snowy woods. Half an hour later, leaving the chapel, I saw the rabbit again some yards off and disappearing into the brush. Rabbits are nocturnal—they see well in the darkness. This caused me to look again at the Nativity icon I have here.

In the picture below, my photographer friend has zoomed in on the rabbit found in my icon. Rabbits sleep with their eyes open. This little rabbit has a knowing look in her eye. The painter has not added the rabbit for the sake of Christmas whimsy, but more likely as a visual echo of Christ's persistent invitation to wake up in the encroaching darkness. Can you name it?

Prayer Before the Wide-awake Rabbit of the Nativity Icon.

May I stay awake to the loss of soul—

our devolving to the level of beasts.

May I be conscious,

and of evolved conscience...

alive to my own Christ-person,

my unique self 

lived authentically,

as Christ lived his.

In the midst of the destruction,

may I remain wide-eyed

to what remains lovely,

elegant and good...

watchful,

but with a guard

on my lips and eyes.

May I remain observant of others,

to aid and comfort,
to wipe away tears,

heedful of the inner voice,

pointing me in some new direction,
the need to be taught.

Alert to grace,

may I be drawn to inner kindness and

growth in goodness.

Darkness is descending—

the sleeping of hearts,

the dulling of minds. 

May I know my self.

May I stay attentive to indifference,

willful ignorance,

our free fall into insanity,

vigilant, 
lest the faith I profess

become exclusive,
self-congratulatory,
irrelevant.

Father Stephen P. Morris

Christ is Born! Glorify Him!

In this splendid 15th century Russian icon of Christ's Nativity, we see several themes combined into one image. Together, the scenes unfold the theology of Christ's birth.

Appearing out of the top border there is a half circle with descending rays. Heaven has opened to us in a new way in the birth of Jesus Christ at Bethlehem! The rays spotlight the Holy Child. The donkey and the cow know who this is. Do we?

We find the child in a dark cave, already suggesting the other cave at the far end of the story. Jesus is wrapped in swaddling clothes which bring to mind the winding sheet of Good Friday; abandoned on Easter Morning.

Look! The angel announces to the shepherd that he and his friends should go to Bethlehem. These bottom-rung-of-the-ladder fellows are Christ's first guests. The Mother of God doesn't look at her Child, but at the shepherds. Such hospitality! It is our first insight into the radical inclusion of Christ's Gospel. Do we really understand this? When the parish puts up the "All are Welcome" sign on the church lawn, do we really mean it? So many people hope to find a happy and inclusive welcome!

Off to the far left, the magi have already set out on their long journey. They see the traveling star. In the west they are depicted as different nationalities. In the east, they are depicted as three different ages. No matter. Again, the message is EVERYONE. We really have to cut out all the divisive and exclusive distinctions. It's just not Christ's way.

Poor Joseph sits with head in hand, being tempted not to believe in the birth, which is beyond reason. Sometimes the Mother of God looks in his direction: God understands our struggles to believe, perhaps especially in these days of great confusion and disruption. 

There are midwives (bottom right) filling the little bathtub: this Child is really human, requiring attention, as does every child. Christianity takes children most seriously. There are 2.5 million children in the United States who are homeless - half of whom are under the age of 6. Our nation fashions itself to be Pro-life.  Is this statistic utterly unacceptable to me? 

God has come to be with us in the Birth of Jesus Christ. There is nothing sentimental about the feast. Christmas should turn my adult world upside down and inside out. Everything I think, plan, choose, prioritize, vote for, hope for, should be impacted by God becoming one with us at Bethlehem.

In the icon, the mountains sparkle with the news, and the green things stand at attention. The golden icon seems to say: God has filled the world with a new light. Do I feel it?

Christ is Born! Glorify Him!

Merry Christmas to you and your family!

Father Stephen

Christ is Born! Glorify Him!

"Do not be frightened..."

Here is a last piece of the Nativity Icon that we have not yet referred to - the singular angel with news for the shepherds:

"Do not be frightened, for I bring you good news of a great joy that is to be felt by all the people, for today in the town of David, a Savior for you has been born who is your Messiah and Lord. And this will prove it to you: you will find a baby wrapped up and lying in a manger." (Luke 2:11,12)

"...that is to be felt by all the people..." We can well imagine then that the message is delivered to us too and for all the world, not just the Christians. I want to feel it!

"...Messiah and Lord." The title Messiah means the great king - greater than David and Solomon and all the rest - who would lead the people to freedom, healing and wholeness. But Jesus seems to have changed the meaning of the word and the expectation. It isn't political but personal and interior: inner freedom, inner healing and wholeness. 

Lord is an Easter title for Jesus. And so already in the Christmas story, we are getting glimpses of the Resurrection story which frees and makes whole!

'Do not be frightened!" Seemingly aware that humans are so prone to fear, as angels arrive to deliver messages from heaven they always introduce themselves with the kind and thoughtful injunction Not to fear. Indeed, the Gospel of Christ is wrapped or book-ended with Not to fear - as Mary is greeted by Gabriel in the Annunciation and the myrrh-bearing women of Easter morning approach the empty tomb. 

Striving to live in goodness today....Do not be afraid!
Troubled by too much or unnecessary guilt...Do not be afraid!
Filled with self-doubt...Do not be afraid!
In life's heaping up of losses...Do not be afraid!
Unrelenting worries about the past...Do not be afraid!
When the plans crumble...Do not be afraid!

Beginning a New Year, 

I send a blessing to folks everywhere 

who have shared in the pondering of the messages

sent out on this blog in 2013. 

God be with you!

Following Yonder Star

 

 

 

The heavens offer a star. See its ray of light descending upon the Child in the tomb-bed. The veil between heaven and earth has been pierced and God has joined us in the dark night. In the ancient world a star indicated a royal birth. But a star is also one of the first things we see after a stormy night as the clouds break. And so stars are signs of restored hope. 

Here, a star gives direction and leads to the fulfillment of our deepest searching.  The traveling magi have found the One they've sought. See them on the far left of the icon, wide-eyed and bowing. Stars have their own light and Jesus will tell us that he is LIGHT for the world. That includes my own little world.

O Christ our Savior, shed your light upon the path I have to tread.

The Shepherd Flute-Player in the Nativity Icon

IN THE BOTTOM RIGHT HAND CORNER OF THE ICON - slightly to the left of the shepherds who are listening to the angel, there is a single shepherd, seated and playing a flute. The flock of sheep and goats is grazing or attentive with heads up. This isn't just a pastoral image - the way we tend to sentimentalize the shepherds. Their's was a rough and tumble life. 

But in symbology, the flute is the instrument which is played as a lament for the ancient gods of Greece. Maybe the young shepherd here is playing a kind of dirge or funeral song for those ancient gods who have now, in the birth of Christ, seen their day. These gods were tricksters and trouble-makers, zooming in from Mount Olympus and down to earth to stir up trouble, then to speed back to their dwelling places. The ancient gods didn't edify us - no one ever said, "I want to be like them." 

Cupid for example shot arrows into people, the effect being that the victim fell madly in love with the first person encountered after the love-arrow. The gods all laughed and mocked the love struck humans who fell head over heals in ridiculous love matches. 

But what about today? We all have a panoply of little (or not so little) gods who need to have the flute-dirge played over them in the Birth of Christ: King-Money, nationalism, the radio host whose word is gospel, the opinions for which I"m prepared to put my head on the block, the lies we protect, our vanities, the old resentments I guard and protect...perhaps most idolatrous of all - the nation's love affair with guns.

Joseph in the Nativity Icon

 

HERE IS JOSEPH, way down in the bottom left corner of the icon. He is sitting all alone on a tree stump, his hand in his head. His back is turned to the entire Christmas story. This is strange for the Westener who always sees Joseph at the very heart of the Bethlehem events - standing with a light over the Holy Child. What's going on?

Joseph is seated this way in all Eastern Icons of the Nativity, though usually there are a couple of figures standing before him dressed as shepherds. We might wonder if this icon isn't really larger than what we can see here. Perhaps it is a wall painting and the "shepherd" figures are around the corner of the room. Nevertheless, these are devil-tempters who come to Joseph disguised as shepherds, sent to tempt Joseph into non-believing. 

Joseph, especially in Saint Matthew's Gospel, has been an important player, what with his numerous angel dream-visitations who have instructed him in the protection of the Mother and Child. Now it seems he is having a moment: Is this for real? Is this becoming too much to bear? Is this Child really born of God's Holy Spirit? Has Mary really been faithful? Poor Joseph, we can understand his feeling confounded. But we know from the rest of the story that when danger was near soon after this event, he was up and off to Egypt (of all places) to continue his role as guardian.

Sitting by Joseph here in this little corner of tempting disillusionment, we might hold the inner place of our own fearful doubts - not dogma doubts - but the struggle to believe in God's accompany-ing, remedy-ing presence: during unemployment, when overwhelmed with fatigue, when success is lacking, joy is fleeting, money is tight, life is shifting sands, the losses seemingly too much to bear. Let Joseph reassure us that heaven is near and God is patient in understanding.

The Nativity Icon in the Christmas Octave (Continued)

SOMEONE WROTE AND WISELY ASKED: Why in the Nativity Icon is the Mother of God looking away from her Son, in Western images she is fixed on him? It does seem curious doesn't it? But follow the line of her gaze. She is looking at the shepherds. And the shepherds are called the ANAWIM.

 

The anawim are those who in every time and culture are those who live on the margins, who have been pushed to the edge, the ones who are forgotten by the world. For the shepherds we might say, "Out of sight, out of mind." They were forgotten, ignored or perhaps despised because they worked away from the practice of the Law. They were not present to their families. They could be perceived as thievish - dirtied. In the icon the shepherds are even at the literal edge of the painted board. Any further and they'd fall off. And this is where Mary gazes. Her eyes echo the invitation of the angels - come and see.

The ANAWIM today? Damaged soldiers back from war who feel forgotten and lost in the system, the people after Katrina and Sandy and the recent Philippine cyclone and Japan after the tsunami and the reactor meltdown. The ANAWIM are the un-insured, un-educated, those without a clinic or dentist, the families who live off of garbage mountains, the young people disappeared, the country of Syria - the layers of division so complex it can't be sorted out.

Or we could say that the ANAWIM is that inner place, in each of us, that feels estranged, lost, deeply confused or un-resolved, at the end of my rope, exhausted physically or emotionally.

We might return to this central piece of the icon - the Mother of God resting. She's not day-dreaming, "What have I gotten myself into here?" But she is looking for each of us and all of us. We might place ourselves and the hurting world in her line of vision. That's a good prayer.

Stephen the Protomartyr ~ the Angel Choir of Christmas Night

Stephen the Protomartyr and Archdeacon

THE CHRISTMAS ANGELS have returned to heaven. The shepherds have gone back to their fields and flocks. And the first day after Christmas turns bloody with the Feast of the Protomartyr and Archdeacon, Stephen. This is because the feast of Stephen is older than the Feast of the Lord's Birth. 

In the evolution of the Christian calendar, Easter of course was the first feast established and celebrated, and then by extension every Sunday as a little Easter. But the first saints days to be remembered were those of the martyrs. Christmas as a feast day would not come along for quite some time.

Yesterday the Master came to us as a man,

And today his servant departs from life.

Yesterday the King was born as a man,

And today his servant is stoned to death,

For the sake of Christ, 

Holy Stephen became the first martyr.

Eastern Christian Kontakion

In the ancient icon seen here, the young deacon, chosen to wait on table for the benefit of widows, is seen wearing a white alb. He is swinging a little thurible, the incense burner the deacon uses at the liturgy while singing intercessions on behalf of the world. In his left hand the holy martyr holds the stones of his martyrdom. 

It's very hard being a Christian in much of the world today. In some countries Christians have stones and curses hurled at them as they approach their church for Mass. This is a good day to remember to pray that Muslims and Christians would love each other and that all the violence would be expunged from religion.

The name Stephen means crowned-one. We're all crowned aren't we? Some people consider their children to be their crowning. But we are first of all crowned with life itself, and faith, and baptism into Christ-life, the friends we have - the people we meet who have loved us and helped us along the way to today. We're crowned with the opportunities life has afforded us and the promises of Christ to the fullness of life - which is an even eternal gift-promise.

Returning to the Nativity Icon with its different elements - here is the angel-choir of Christmas night filling the sky after the shepherds had been directed to Bethlehem.

And suddenly there was with the angel the multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying: "Glory to God! Glory to God in the highest! And peace on the earth!"

Father Rahner says that angels are the entourage of Christ. They are present at the announcement of his conception, at the end of his forty day prayer in the desert, at his suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before his death, at his Easter Rising. Eastern icons place a row of angels at his Baptism, holding towels with covered hands.

But these are serenading angels. Lovely! I imagine we get close to knowing what the song might have sounded like when we hear Handel's Messiah: the Christmas angel-story  sung so memorably there. It is said that German Christmas carols put the Infant Jesus to sleep, while French carols wake him up. We should be sure to sing carols this week, even alone - to put Jesus to sleep, to wake him up - doesn't matter - only that they be sung with love.

Christ is Born! Glorify Him!

WE MUST REMEMBER THAT AN ICON DOESN'T TRY to do what a camera would have done, were cameras in existence centuries ago. Icons connect us to the things of heaven - to eternal time. Clocks and watches don't figure when we're standing before an icon. That's why in the icon of the Nativity here, there are lots of pieces or elements of the story conflated into one image. 

It's a wonderful thing to spend earth-time just looking at the Christmas icon. Silence might be the best prayer. Sort it out yourself first. Feel the wonder in it, enjoy the colors and the details, be pleased for the seeming invitation to enter the scene.

During the Christmas Octave (eight-day festal overflow) we'll quite literally zoom in to one or another element of the icon to ponder it together. Recall as well that when we speak of the Christmas mystery it doesn't mean, "Oh just believe it, you can't understand it anyway," but mystery for the Christian means that the clues and the light are so full and near we can miss it.  God has gotten so close to us in the birth of Jesus, it might go un-noticed - perhaps even by myself.

Meanwhile here is the first verse of the Kontakion (Eastern Christian poem/prayer/hymn) for the Feast of the Lord's Birth. We might use it to open up a time of prayerful looking or gazing each morning of the Octave. Again, it is said of Saint Kateri Tekawitha that she prayed more with her eyes than with her lips. And Saint Therese of Lisieux said her prayer was sometimes just a sigh. 

Today the Virgin gives birth to him who is above all being,
and the earth offers a cave to him whom no one can approach.
Angels with shepherds give glory,
and magi journey with a star,
for to us there has been born
a little Child, God before all ages.

And often on the Christmas radio stations we hear the Italian children's carol which translated says:

You came down from the stars,
O King of Heaven,
and came into a cave as cold as ice!
Oh, how much it cost you to love me so! 

In the center of the icon is the Bethlehem cave. It is placed centrally so we don't miss its powerful significance.  But it is not a sentimental significance. At the start of the Christ-story we are already being directed to the end of the story where Jesus' body, having been taken down from the cross, is placed in the tomb hewn out of rock. And it is from that cave-tomb that Jesus will rise in the bright-newness of Easter. Notice that the Infant's bed resembles a sepulcher (tomb) and that in his Gospel swaddling clothes Jesus is symbolically wrapped as on Good Friday.

The cave is a gaping hole in the earth or the wide open mouth taking us in. The cave is that which seeks to swallow humanity - drawing it into the encapsulating power of sin: our wrong-headedness, our destructive folly, our rebellion against goodness, the error of those choices that oppose the God of light and life. God is born into that!

The presence of the cave also suggests that all aspects of creation share in the transfiguring renewal Jesus Christ initiates. Each participates in its own way: the plants, the animals, the people, the earth itself. Notice that the rock seems to radiate light.

At Christmas, pondering the Nativity Icon, we might pray for Christ to be born in hearts cold as ice - mindful of those national hearts that ignore the poor, that contemplate war and its preparations, that make decisions that benefit only the few, that plot evil...

Christ is Born! Glorify Him! 
I send a blessing and good wishes for joy and peace
on Christmas Day!