Christmas Eve Vigil Reflection
Reflection – Christmas Eve Vigil Service, 2021
Throughout Advent we have been waiting and longing. Scripture has taken us from Genesis and Jeremiah, through Ruth and Samuel, to Micah and Isaiah, where we have been told that in time, the desert will exult and bloom, the light of the moon shall be like the sun, those who are weak will become strong, a highway – a holy way – will lie before us. It is for those with a journey to make Isaiah says: The Israelites to their Promised Land, Mary and Joseph to Jerusalem and Bethlehem, where ultimately Jesus was born. And for US – who walk today this same journey – it is a journey to God through this Benedictine vocation and community. On this journey we are told there will be JOY, great JOY.
Tonight, the journey to Jerusalem and Bethlehem, for Mary and Joseph comes to an end. Can you imagine a greater joy for any couple than birthing their first child? And what a child he was and would become!
Yet, we know, that certainly was NOT the end of their journey.
Though Mary and Joseph may not have fully grasped the significance of this holy child, they had already come to understand in some way, the phenomenal sign prophesied by Isaiah: “a virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel,” which means God-with-us. As faithful Jews, they were raised hearing the Bethlehem prophecy, which we heard this morning: “from you, Bethlehem-Ephratah, too small to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel …and he shall be peace.” Little did they know what it would cost for that child to bring peace to this world.
We too are on a journey – these last 21 months have been a difficult journey and a time of waiting for us – the pandemic, the fear of getting sick, the suffering of those who did, the deep sorrow of those whose friends and family did not survive, or who did survive and now experience ongoing effects form the virus. For us, our sorrow came with the deaths of 6 of our sisters during those months: Sisters Rosemary, Anne, Mary Jane, Denise, Catherine and Cecile.
During our waiting times – we know very little of what will happen on our journey. That’s God’s plan and God’s gift which continually unfolds.
We don’t receive these gifts under a tree, where we can unwrap them all at once.
But we do know that, as Isaiah says: “We will meet with joy and gladness – and we have! This night is glorious, truly a holy night, – this night echoes the music of angels, the bleating of sheep, the voices and the silence of those who gathered at the stable with the animals. All creation joined in this “joy and gladness!”
We too join in welcoming Christ again into our hearts, family, and world.
But there is much work yet to be done on this journey. We must become and daily BE the Christ for others – in their need, in their sorrow, in their confusion, in their desires and in their joys. This is what the waiting has been about.
May that be the Christmas gift we bring to each other, to our friends and family, and to those we don’t yet even know.
We will always be ‘waiting and longing’ for something – but let it be a fruitful time of waiting, - expecting nothing, but receiving so much, knowing that the ultimate something is the final gift from God: eternal life and joy, where we too will one day sing with the angels as they did on this very night so many ages ago; announcing glad tidings of great joy for all of humanity and all of our world.
That is what God asks of us now – to live for one another, so that with Mary we may always sing: “My soul glorifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.”
Merry Christmas my Sisters. And to all those who are with us this evening, we thank you for joining us on our journey!