Reflecting on Christmas 2023

Reflecting on Christmas this year, has repeatedly drawn me back to an image of the kitchen table adorned with a freshly baked loaf of bread. It’s simplicity, promise of sustenance, nourishment, and comfort challenge me as I reflect upon what I am called to this Christmas.

I have spent much of the past year reflecting on hunger and food. Not just the hunger experienced in the pits of our bellies, but in the depths of our souls; that drives us to a downward spiral of greed and endless consumption. In Braiding Sweetgrass, indigenous author Robin Wall Kimmerer speaks of the Windigo, human creatures turned to cannibalism, consumed by insatiable hunger, spread by a bite from one to another. This sinister reality is apparent in the capitalist North American culture where desire for ‘things’ is easily spread from one person to the next, regardless of the harm it can cause to our bodies and planet.

The coming of Christ Jesus, in the form of a baby offers a break to this life-stealing pattern.

The illumination of Luke’s nativity (2: 1-7) in the St. John’s illustrated bible depicts a striking image of a gold column extending from a manger in a stable, to the heavens. In the St. John’s bible God is portrayed in gold. Holding this image with the manger, a source of food and the reminder that Bethlehem literally means town of bread, perhaps explains my focus on bread as an image of Christmas.

Through the incarnation God breaks into the world, bridging heaven and earth, in a profound way. The sacred is made present in the world, in creation, for creation, and through creation. It can be found in the very food we eat that sustains us, nourishes us, and gives life. This is the gift we are given in Christ Jesus.

Significantly, Emmanuel, God with us, is made present in the form of a baby in a stable, to a poor couple uprooted by a decree to be registered that engaged the whole world. ‘The world’ is busily engaged in its own priorities and activities. How many missed the birth of the Messiah? Had it not been for the shepherds’ openness, taking the time to pay attention to the angel in the fields, it may have been missed completely. How many times do we miss God appearing to us in simple moments in the busyness of our lives? How might recognizing God in these moments help still our hearts, and help foster right relationship with God, one another, and creation.

The invitation of Christmas is to pay attention to where and how God breaks into our lives, in surprising and simple ways. Recognizing the sacred that surrounds us fosters our gratitude for what we have. This in turn transforms our hearts towards God, helping fight off our Windigo tendencies, supporting our growth in God personally and as a community, locally and globally. This Christmas may we be able to share the bread that we have each been given, in whatever form it takes, with one another, that we might individually and collectively, grow into Emmanuel. 

-Annette Donovan Panchaud, CSJ Associate

Image: Unsplash/Anne Nygård; Vicky Ng; Jon Carlson.

Christmas is an Invitation

Christmas is an invitation for each one of us

To be in our world what Jesus was for his world;

A beam of light in the midst of darkness,

A ray of hop in the midst of despair.

If Jesus is to be born into today’s world,

It must be through us.

We must be the beam of light,

In the midst of darkness.

We must be the ray of hope in the midst of despair.

To the extent that we need the invitation of Christmas,

To the extend will the world receive the gift of Christmas:

Peace on earth and goodwill toward all.

-Sister Mary Jo Fox, CSJ

IMAGES: Unsplash/Robert Thiemann, Tiard Schulz

Christmas Eve: The Long Night

Christmas Eve, in the experience of many, is of a night of exquisite expectation, of fulfillment of the pregnant waiting of Advent and new life coming into being. It is a time of searching hope in the darkness even when darkness threatens to overwhelm us. We seek in the silent night sky, a star of promise.

At an everyday level we gather to begin a celebration. We prepare treats to share. Our excited children can hardly wait at all, creating mayhem and resisting sleep, just in case they miss Santa’s visit to place gifts under the tree! In Christian families a young child may also have a special role focused on the very meaning of Christmas. In my family living in the United States the youngest child, able to read, waits expectantly to be called on to recite the Christmas story from the old family Bible and then to place the baby Jesus into the waiting creche.

Christmas is, of course, a celebration of the birth of Christ so long ago. But it is also much more! Our celebration cannot be reduced simply to a sentimental re-enactment of that familiar scene, lovely though it is. For the very heart of the Christmas story is the vivid narrative of universal incarnation – God with us, God in all things, for time and for eternity. Christmas is, above all, a celebration of Divine Presence in all lives, in all events and in every element of matter – an ancient understanding.

A powerful image of this understanding of incarnation, is found in the Carmina Gadelica, a beautiful compendium of ancient Gaelic prayers and poems collected from the Hebridean Islands by folklorist, Alexander Carmichael.

In a Christmas carol entitled “the Nativity” found in that text we read that on Christmas Eve … in “the long night, Glowed to Him wood and tree, Glowed to Him mount and sea, Glowed to Him land and plain, When that His foot was come to Earth.”

The carol speaks of the light of Christ’s birth penetrating all and reflected in the entirety of God’s creation. Later, these words find more contemporary utterance in the writings of Teilhard de Chardin, Jesuit priest and paleontologist (1881-1955), as he exclaims,

“The Incarnation is a making new, a restoration, of all the universe’s forces and powers; Christ is the Instrument, the Centre, the End, of the whole of animate and material creation; through Him, everything is created, sanctified and vivified (The Phenomenon of Man).

This is what we celebrate at Christmas along with our more traditional practices. Truly it is a celebration, a joyful one but also one that de Chardin says, invites us into its deep mysterious significance not just for Christmas but for all of life in Christ. As we read in 2 Corinthians 5: 17, “if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation, everything old has passed away; see everything has become new.” This is the birthing of Christ in our hearts and world as we celebrate Christmas Eve. In the “long night” we are to birth Christ in the world anew.

This year, the “long night” of Christmas is a seemingly “dark night” for many; a night filled with violent conflicts worldwide, of the sufferings of people fleeing persecution, torture and starvation, a night of ecological degradation. It is a night still struggling with the ongoing shadows and isolation of a pandemic. Rapidly escalating prices in stores mean that many families are desperate simply to provide their children with some festivities. We face a night where the possibility of the light being extinguished forever seems real in ways not previously experienced in our world.

“with the celebration of Christ’s birth we are called to be “God’s light in our world.” ”

And yet … as Christians familiar with mystical references to “the dark night” we find in our faith the light of Christ at the heart of all things, incarnation, the God we can touch. As we celebrate this Christmas Eve and the days ahead may we be reminded that with the celebration of Christ’s birth we are called to be “God’s light in our world.” The silent, enveloping waiting in the long night calls us ever to the primacy of prayer and love in and for the world. It invites us to prepare actions that will make a difference.  Let’s truly celebrate with joy this Christmas and in the “long night of promise” may we share that joy. On this Christmas Eve may we again hear a call to new birth in the face of the challenges of our times. As Christmas dawns in our hearts then all of creation will indeed “glow where His foot was” and will, through us, once again, shine Christ’s Presence “on Earth”.

 -Sister Mary Rowell, csj

Presence, Grace, and Gift

Sean came to live with me in late December 2020. His mother passed away about 9 years ago when she was 45 years old due to complications from juvenile diabetes. Prior to that, Sean lived with his step-father in Chatham.

Sean is 35 years old and has Cerebral Palsy and is on the spectrum for autism.  Sean functions cognitively around the age of 8-10 years old.

I went to pick up Sean to come live with me on Dec 24, 2020 following the death of his step-dad from pneumonia. Sean’s only sibling passed away suddenly a few years ago at the age of 32, which left Sean with no immediate family except a grandma and grandpa who are elderly and unable to have Sean live with them.  Sean is not able to live alone due to his cognitive abilities. Sean’s biological father is “not in the picture”.

Sean has taught and continues to teach and remind me of so many priceless and valuable life lessons.  For example, Sean is simple and simply lives in the present moment. He doesn’t worry or have anxieties: he simply lives in the present moment.  When his mother, brother, and step-dad passed away, Sean would say that “they are in heaven now watching over us”.

If you ask Sean today, he would say that he is living his best life through God’s grace. He loves camp and loves to help out.  I am convinced an angel, the Holy Spirit, all of the above was looking out for Sean as he immediately landed a volunteer position at an overnight camp where he works in the kitchen. He gets to stay overnight in a cabin he shares with other staff members. The staff are so good to him, they include Sean in after work activities and treat him as an equal.  Sean came from the Chatham area where his step-dad worked and Sean had some experience working as custodial in a factory on modified duties and later in a marine shop.  Sean graduated from a special college program that provides life skills and specialized classes to students with special needs. When Sean lived in the country near Chatham, he would watch TV or listen to music and had little contact socializing with others due to the country setting.

“ I am convinced an angel, the Holy Spirit, all of the above was looking out for Sean ”

The camp director tells me that we need more people like Sean: he is on time for work every day, always completes all chores/tasks and he takes pride in the work he does in the kitchen and shows others how to use the industrial size dishwasher.  Sean never complains and he never asks for anything. 

I am truly grateful for the gift of Sean’s presence through the grace of God.  I am reminded to slow down, not to judge others, not to complain, and to see life as true gift from God.

Sean is a gift from God and during Advent and Christmas, I continue to reflect on Sean’s purpose in life and how and why he entered mine.

-Julie Angiolillo