Hugh Crean
The Late Reverend Hugh Crean was Pastor of Holy Name Church.
From the Pulpit
I believe if Jesus walked our streets today he would speak as he always did, in parable. Remember, whenever he wanted to make a point or teach a lesson, he would tell a story.
I believe if Jesus wanted to speak a parable about his own birth, he might look at us this day and say:
There was a place in the city which had a park in the forest, actually called Forest Park, in the parish of the Holy Name. In the dead of winter it was dark, cold and forbidding. But lights were strung from end to end creating a brilliant blaze of wonder, a transforming miracle of winter.
The lights depicted all God’s creatures at play with visions of deer leaping and children sledding and toy soldiers marching and hobby horses and a cat in the hat. A collage, a vision of people at home with each other. Bright lights, a world (a globe) at peace, a winter wonderland, a December fantasy, a menorah of endless oil and darkness dispelled by God’s gift of light. A manger with blessed faithful Joseph, exquisite, simple, and loving Mary and a child is born to you.
Jesus would make us recall that would remind us that he said, “I am the light of the world.” He would remind us that a bright light, a star, shone in the sky to lead wise men and all other to Bethlehem. And what did they see? A baby. A beautiful healthy baby and more --- the birth of salvation, revelation and promise.
They saw Mary representing all of us, the poor and dispossessed who do not have everything, whose lives are incomplete. The people who settle for what is available when they would want so much more for themselves and their children.
We feel the tenderness of this eternal moment when her love and faith are wrapped in the silence of the communion with her newborn baby. When words are not necessary or even possible.
And then there is Joseph. The tender, faithful, strong and loving Joseph at her side. The light within him battling the darkness of embarrassment and futility. A stable for my wife and child? But we have each other and we have God and we will make it in faith and trust.
A parable of Christmas: Bright lights illuminate a city in the middle of a park scattering darkness, symbolizing the beauty, the joy and the hope just as the light of Christ shines in our lives in dark places of personal life, family life, business life. It brings clarity, lifts up our hearts not for one day or one winter season only, but for all time inviting us to let the lights shine in our city, our neighborhood, our schools, our churches, our homes and in ourselves today, tomorrow and all the days after.
To see the light, to bring the light, to be the light is a choice we make, a commitment to be light to others that they might behold as well in the dark and dingy places of this world the face of Jesus Christ our Savior born on Christmas Day.
Jesus, long ago, took things of everyday life --- yeast in the bread, lost money, mustard seeds, to clarify the giant abstractions of life and death, salvation and kingdom. May the bright lights of Springfield lead us to the true light, the positive life, giving memory of an experience when a star led people to find in the stable the light of the world.
Even today, truly wise men and women follow stars.
Reprinted from The Sunday Republican, December 1995.
