Now
we have entered those out-of-time days, those days that will become especially
dense between Christmas and New Year when no-one knows what day it is, cut
loose from the markers and rhythms of the ‘working’ week. We have entered those
days, as many people – and certainly schoolchildren – are now Off Until After
Christmas, even if others will work until Christmas Eve (and still others, some
by preference, some by necessity, will keep working all through the holiday
season).
The
working week, of course, is not the only way to mark time. There is the sacred
calendar (or, rather, there are sacred calendars, of the ‘Western’ and ‘Eastern’
Churches, as well as of other faiths) whereby we (in the ‘Western’ Church) might
mark the eight-day Antiphons from 17 December onward; Christmas Eve; Christmas
Day; the twelve-day Feast of Christmas – from the eve of 25 December to the eve
of 6 January, and themselves including the feast days of Stephen, 26, John the
Evangelist, 27, the Holy Innocents, 28; the Feast of the Epiphany on 6 January;
and the duration of Christmastide until Candlemas on 2 February. Dark winter
days and nights, punctuated by noting light in the darkness. Without in any way
dismissing the darkness. Simply being shaped to see in the dark.
And
this invites us to be in two realities at once: the one we can see with our eyes,
and the deeper reality we can see with the eyes of our heart. Out of
chronological time (chronos) and stepping into theological time (kairos) where everything
– however unlovely – is caught up in the love of God.
May
this transform our lives, and our life work, to the glory of God and the common
good.
No comments:
Post a Comment