Name is what
people call a person – or a place or a thing. It can be a common name like table
or cat, or it can be something specific like Felix or St. Ignatius. It’s the way a person is known, more
than just what their mother called them when she wanted them to come in for
dinner or how their friends, acquaintances and business associates refer to
them in person or in reference. A person respected in the community was said to
have a good name while someone who was a criminal or even just a local
scoundrel could give a whole family a bad name. Names have meaning; Michael
comes from the Hebrew word that means “One like God,” while Sarah means “Lady”
or “Princess.” Jesus, the name we all know from the gospels, is actually the
Anglicized form of a Greek rendition of an Aramaic name, Yeshua, which actually
is a contraction of Yehoshu’a, the name we know as Joshua and which actually
means “Yahweh is salvation.” Philippians 2:9-11 tells us, “Therefore God
exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every
name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and
on earth and under the earth, and
every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the
Father.” Now THAT is a name.
Nativity is a word
that means the occasion of one’s birth. Christians use it in particular to
refer to the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. In Bethlehem there is a church known
as the Church of the Nativity, a basilica with origins back to the 330s when
Helena, mother of Constantine, toured the Holy Land to identify sacred sites
associated with Christianity. Since at least a century before that, the place
where the current Church of the Nativity stands has been revered as the very
spot where Mary gave birth to Jesus. Helena and Constantine’s church burned
although parts of it remained, and the Emperor Justinian rebuilt and expanded
the building in 6th century. It is the oldest Christian church in
continual use, and is surrounded as well as shared by monasteries of
Franciscan, Greek Orthodox and Armenian monks. Most of all, it is a visible
reminder of an event that happened over 2000 years ago but which is celebrated
and re-enacted during December of every year. The nativity is the culmination
of Advent’s promise, the incarnation of our Lord on earth.
How do you describe night?
It’s a period of time where the sun is not visible above the horizon; it is
dark outside and is usually cooler than it was during the day. Quite often
things slow down, people are a little less frazzled and a little more willing
to sit and talk. Things that happen at night often seem more significant or
more mysterious or somehow different than the same things that happen in daylight;
babies are born, people die, crimes happen, criminals get caught. Stories told
at night around a campfire or a chiminea seem
more thrilling, scarier and more entertaining than stories told in a
brightly-lit room. Night is a good time to unwind, to mediate, to sit and think
about important things, sacred things. Isn’t it sort of amazing that two of the
greatest liturgies of the church take place at night: the Great Vigil of Easter
and what we have come to call Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve. It is the
Christmas Eve service that marks the end of Advent because tradition has it
that Jesus was born at night. On that night, the stars seem to shine brighter
and feel closer, sounds are sharper and clearer, and it feels like the veil
between heaven and earth is as thin as gossamer. The Great Vigil of Easter is a
wonderful service with great and deep meaning, but Christmas Eve, well that’s a
different thing. It’s very special in its own way.
What Messiah is to
singers and A Christmas Carol is to
actors, The Nutcracker is to dancers.
The story begins with a Christmas party at the home of Clara’s family. As a
gift, she is given a magnificent nutcracker, but naughty boys snatch it away
and being to play catch with it, breaking it in the process. As the others go
up to bed, Clara stays and holds the broken nutcracker and falls asleep with it
in her arms next to the Christmas tree. She has fantastic dreams full of mouse
armies, dancing flowers, exotic dancers from around the world, a handsome
prince and a Sugar Plum Fairy. At the end Clara awakens still under the tree
and with the Nutcracker Prince in her arms. It’s the kind of drama that seems
meant for children but which adults as well see as an annual event. How many
young girls have dreamed of dancing the part of the Sugar Plum Fairy and who
have started their hoped-for careers as Clara? It isn’t only Clara who has
dreams. The music is among the most
recognized in the world. It may be a Christmas tradition, but it can be an
Advent treat – a lesson in what a bit of kindness can do.
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