A Blessed Christmas to all.
Theologian Dorothy Soelle talks in considered one of her poems concerning the “irresistible attraction” of Jesus. One doesn’t must be Christian to really feel that attraction—Thich Nhat Hanh felt it as a toddler and wrote two important books about Christ as an grownup. He understood the message of Christ as properly or higher than most Christians. And he was a Buddhist monk.
A 42-year-old buddy of mine from Thailand is a working towards Buddhist, and he, too, felt near Jesus from childhood on. Certainly, he has made frequent pilgrimages on the Camino in France and Spain and has even chosen to stay alongside that Camino in Portugal.
Artists typically intuit the core message of Jesus and the Christ extra absolutely than theologians. Potter, painter, poet and a beloved instructor at our ICCS and College of Creation Spirituality program, M.C. Richards, is one such artist who understood Christmas as really as anybody I do know.
In her portray reproduced because the banner image above, she paints in easy kind and memorable colour, the Christmas story as she and the creator of John’s Gospel see it. It’s my privilege to get up to this Christmas message each morning, as her portray hangs on a wall subsequent to my mattress. Additionally it is the very last thing I see earlier than I fall asleep at evening. (My canine sleeps on her mattress proper below the portray and adjoining to my mattress so the four-legged ones, simply as on the first Christmas, are represented there too as witness.)
Witness to what? To the glory, the doxa–because the Jewish Scriptures say, “the entire earth is full of God’s glory.” That’s what MC is portray on this Christmas meditation—the start of Glory, the presence of glory, the story of Christmas, due to this fact. Even when my bed room is kind of darkish, the gold colour of this portray displays a delicate glory.
Glory might be delicate, and glory might be loud. However it’s at all times with us—if we now have eyes and coronary heart to see.
John’s Gospel, which is the final of the gospels and the creator due to this fact had the longest time to meditate on the which means of Jesus’ start and the Christ story, talks frankly of the function of glory. And likewise the function of sunshine.
The phrase was made flesh
he lived amongst us,
(pitched his tent amongst us),
and we noticed his glory,
the glory that’s his as the one Son of the Father,
stuffed with grace and reality. (Jn 1.14)
Angels seem to the shepherds to announce the excellent news. Shepherds are among the many poorest and most despised members of society (who stay with the sheep and odor like them). We’re informed that “the glory of the Lord shone spherical” the shepherds when the nice throng of angels appeared and sang,
Glory to God within the highest heaven,
And peace to individuals who take pleasure in his favor. (Lk 2.9, 14)
Thus, “Glory” is the primary phrase out of the mouth of the angels.
About mild, John’s gospel says:
All that got here to be has life in him
And that life was the sunshine of people,
A light-weight that shines at nighttime,
A light-weight that darkness couldn’t overpower (or grasp)….
The Phrase was the true mild
That enlightens all folks…
To all who did settle for him
He gave energy to grow to be kids of God. (Jn 1.4,5, 9,12)
The glory of the event is one thing we expertise day-after-day. Life and existence are full of doxa and glory. There’s a spark in all creatures, together with the human soul, that too is a degree of glory and the presence of the divine, the ancilla animae or spark of the soul.
The divine could be very close to and born amongst and inside us. We’re all members every day in such an incarnation. It’s steady.
Banner Picture: “Mom and Youngster.” Portray by M.C. Richards, from Matthew Fox’s assortment. Revealed with permission.
Queries for Contemplation
What do you see in M.C. Richards’ portray of the nativity scene? Do you expertise the start of doxa and glory and the Christ every day? An ongoing incarnation and an ongoing Christmas?
Associated Readings by Matthew Fox
Christian Mystics: 365 Readings & Meditations, p. 273
Authentic Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior For Our Time, pp. 189-195
Matthew Fox: Important Writings on Creation Spirituality
