It is a strange day to celebrate the splendor of God in the Child Jesus whom we adored at Christmas just a few weeks ago. This week a year ago, a nascent novel virus is bursting out across the world. Today we mourn lives lost: nearly 400,000 in the US, and 2 million worldwide. Millions more lives have been affected. This morning as I write, our President is impeached again, following violent defilement of our state citadel, the Capital Building.
Yet, I am reminded in the Hymn for today’s Lauds, Nox et Tenebrae, that Christ the Lord has come and now the work of Christmas begins
Darkness of night and evil things,
Confusion of the world, give way,
Light enters and the day is here;
Disperse, for Christ the Lord has come.
Theologian, author, and activist Howard Thurman (1899-1981) was one who put action to words. Within his prolific writings, we find this call to action, even in the shadows of the setting Epiphany sun:
When the song of the angels is stilled,
when the star in the sky is gone,
when the kings and princes have gone home,
when the shepherds are back with the flocks,
then the work of Christmas begins:
to find the lost,
to heal those broken in spirit,
to feed the hungry,
to release the oppressed,
to rebuild the nations,
to bring peace among all peoples,
to make a little music with the heart…
...and to radiate the Light of Christ, every day, in every way, in all that we do and in all that we say. Then the work of Christmas begins. Let it begin with us. --by Jan