The Society of the Sacred Heart
Australia-Aotearoa
New Zealand ,
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The Society of the Sacred Heart
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It is not what you are nor what you have been that God sees with
all merciful eyes,
There is something wanting in education where a child has not had its share of leisure, to be rapt in silence and alone… Janet Stuart rscJ
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2010
Christmas Reflection
The real meaning of Advent and the season of Christmas these days can easily get drowned out. We live in a rapidly changing world where the fast pace of life speeds up even more around this time as we immerse ourselves in plans to gather with our families, prepare festive meals and choose suitable gifts for family and friends. Hopefully, as we catch snatches of the words of familiar Carols or glimpse a Christmas crib we are also able to spend at least a few moments in the car or waiting in a shopping queue to recall some of the familiar Gospel stories that tell of the birth of Jesus and ponder their meaning for us today.
As the words of “Once in royal David’s city” float by we might remember the seemingly long genealogy of Jesus: “Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob,” with all the intervening names, some familiar and others less so, till we come to... “Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah.” As children, we were probably bored by the reading of this long list of names. Now, as we juggle with the demands and claims of family and friends at this busy season, we can take comfort in the thought that Jesus really is “Emmanuel - God with us”. His family tree contained as many interesting characters with varied approaches to life as we might find in those surrounding us today.
Shopping for gifts could spark thoughts of the gifts the Wise men brought to honour the baby in the crib: gold, frankincense and myrrh. Gold – what use do we make of our own “gold”? There are so many in the world today struggling to overcome dire poverty. It was this question of poverty that our international gathering of AMASC in Malta addressed and the Society’s General Chapter 2008 considered leaving us with questions like: “How do we celebrate and share the gifts of life together with others?” and “How do we allow oursleves to be touched by the needs beyond the borders of our province, especially in those places where life is most threatened? How are we called to respond?” Today we can respond by giving a Global Christmas gift from a web site like Caritas.
Burning frankincense has always been a symbol of our prayers rising to God. The thought of it invites us to treasure the moments of peace we get as we wait in a queue or pause at a stop light and to build some time of prayer into our lives. Contemplation was another of the themes addressed at our last General Chapter:
“We recognise that activism and dispersion diminish the quality of our life. Instead we are called to stop, to choose silence and to open and let ourselves be opened to our inner depths where the Spirit of God allows us to feel, see and understand life and reality with God’s heart. When we allow our bodies to be silent, our senses awaken and we are able to hear the voice of the Spirit within us. Then in the secret place of the heart the Spirit gradually transforms our feelings and responses, and draws us into an intimate relationship with God. The Spirit attunes us to the heartbeat of our people to discover the presence and love of God in everyday life. We recognise the gratuitousness of this experience. “
Myrrh was a burial spice and draws our thoughts to another Christmas, Christmas Island where tragedy unfolded on our shores in recent days. As a nation we have complex questions to face as we grapple with the issue of refugees. As Christians, we hear the words of the Gospel echoing in our hearts “because there was no room for them in the inn” and “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”
But along with all these serious thoughts we must not forget that this is a time of
Joy to the
world, the Lord is come!
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Society
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