This is my opportunity to say “Merry Christmas” to all of you, and to pray blessings for you in the New Year. May this holy season renew in you the gift of hope. No matter how dark our world seems – literally at this time of year, and metaphorically – as disciples of Jesus we live in hope, in the trust that in the end God will accomplish his intentions for the flourishing of creation and of the human race.
Advent is nearly at its end; we now arrive at its fourth and final Sunday. The ancient “O Antiphons” (monastic chants) of the Advent season speak to us about the longings of the human heart that only God can fill. The Antiphon for today, December 20, is as follows: ” O Key of David and scepter of the House of Israel; you open and no one can shut; you shut and no one can open. Come and lead the captive from prison; free those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.” (Isaiah 9:6; 22:22) It is an image of liberation; Christ is the one who leads us out of our captivities and prisons.
We lament the many suffering people in the world who are sitting in darkness and the shadow of death, such as those in… (name your favorite war zone). But Isaiah understands our human condition, how we ourselves often sit in darkness and the shadow of death. We find ourselves hopeless or cynical, sluggish or dispirited, afraid or angry, because of the darkness of the circumstances in our personal lives or in the world. And often underneath all that is the “shadow of death,” the subliminal yet looming awareness of our own mortality and limitation.
The antidote to that darkness and bondage is hope. Christmas is a time that can renew our hope: our hope in humanity, its resilience and inherent goodness, but above all our hope in God and the power of God’s Christ born in us through the Holy Spirit. That kind of hope will get you a Merry Christmas!