Dear friends,
It was a great pleasure to find a super Advent calendar, at the Christmas Market, and send it in the post to our young grandson. The pleasure of watching him open it was even greater! As long-distance grandparents WhatsApp videos and live video chats continue to be a wonderful thing, enabling us to see our grandson growing up.
The Advent calendar is one that will grow day by day with the addition of one of the characters of the Nativity, angels, people or animals. So far, we have seen a bird and a sheep, and it will all culminate in the baby Jesus, the Christ child. I really hope that our grandson experiences that ‘building up’ each day towards the baby, at the centre, on Christmas Day.
Advent is a season for waiting, with expectation, for the coming of Christ. 2000 years ago, Christ came, born in precarious circumstances in a small middle eastern town, an out of the way and insignificant place, under occupation by the mightiest empire ever known.
Yet, despite this, one of the delights of the biblical account, amplified by the faithful over the years, is that when Christ came, lots of people and animals came along too. His parents, the ox and ass, the shepherds, their sheep and the angelic host, the Magi and their camels. At home I have an Oxfam Peruvian Nativity, housed in a little wooden box, in which the Christ child is crammed among a colourful, chaotic crowd.
As our magnificent Advent Procession liturgy says, Christ comes to us in the Child of Bethlehem, in the gift of his Spirit, in the bread of the Eucharist and in the joy of human lives that are shared. My Peruvian Nativity reminds me of Christ in the joy of human lives that are shared.
Yet this year we’re all painfully aware of conflict, shattered lives and the most terrible violence and war around the world, including in Israel and Gaza, and the Ukraine. So many sit ‘in the shadow of death.’ This is the context in which we journey this year through Advent towards Christmas celebrations. So, this is just the time, as Christians, to hang on to our sure and certain hope, that ‘God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life,’ (John 3: 16). There is nothing that humanity can do that will stop God from loving us and wanting to be with us, wanting to come to us in his Son and transform the world.
There’s a simple Christmas Poem by John Bell (1745-1831) that speaks of the great movement of God’s love:
Light looked down and saw the darkness.
I will go there’, said light.
Peace looked down and saw war.
‘I will go there’, said peace.
Love looked down and saw hatred.
‘I will go there’, said love.
So he,
the Lord of Light,
the Prince of Peace
the King of Love
came down and crept in beside us.
This year, more than ever, seek the gifts of God’s Spirit, the light, peace and love of God. These are gifts that last, and they last best by being shared with others, as we await the coming of Christ again into his world.
I do hope that you have a holy and blessed Advent and a joyful Christmas.
I’ll close with a prayer from The Roman Missal,
Father in heaven, our hearts desire the warmth of your love
and our minds are searching for the light of your Word.
Increase our longing for Christ our Saviour and give us the strength to grow in love,
that the dawn of his coming may find us rejoicing in his presence
and welcoming the light of his truth.
Amen.
Please take care of yourself and others.
With blessings and best wishes,
The Very Revd Catherine Ogle
Dean of Winchester