Daily Readings.
Reflection by Tom Albus, a parishioner.
"The past is never dead. It's not even past." -
William Faulkner
I have often wondered what it would have been like to be
one of those shepherds tending their flocks near Bethlehem on the night of
Christ's birth. Wouldn't it be so
awesome to see and hear the angels and then arrive at the stable to see the
baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph that first Christmas? Remember, though, the birth of Christ is not
just a historical event. When he hope
for it during Advent 2012 and celebrate it on December 25th we give continued
vitality to the eternal truth of Christmas.
This is what Henri Nouwen’s Yale colleague Brevard Childs
had to say about memory and living our faith:
The act
of remembering serves to actualize the past for a generation removed in time
from those former events in order that they themselves can have an intimate
encounter with the great acts of redemption....Although separated in time
and space from the sphere of God’s revelation in the past, through memory
the gulf is spanned, and the exiled people share again in redemptive
history.
Isn't it cool to think that Jesus came into the world to
give light to darkness two thousand years ago but, even more than that, He
comes into our lives and our hearts every day and every moments when we
remember and accept that truth?
I know the Incarnation happened. I am grateful for it and I can welcome Christ
into my heart at Christmas and always just by remembering.
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