People, some well known, others not, and bringing many different life experiences, inspire my spiritual reflections in this Christmas season. Having had the privilege of seeing and hearing all but one of them in recent weeks, I take pleasure in sharing their insights.
The movie and stage actress Glenn Close, speaking to students and others, confesses: “I get bored talking about myself.” And, when she talks about acting, she says: “You have to stay vulnerable.”
Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, discussing the likely war on Iraq, warns: “War is always a violation of human rights.” He worries about the effects of war not only on those who are killed and injured but on those who do the killing. “When we dream of hate, we destroy who we are – the image of God.”
Like the prophet he is, Bishop Gumbleton calls on Americans to make a “major shift in our thinking and then in our public policy.” Only then can we move away from destroying our environment and impoverishing further the poor of the world.
Billy Collins, poet laureate of the United States, after reading his poems with great charm to a packed auditorium of students and others, is asked about war on Iraq. He replies: “Poetry is anti-terrorist, pro-life, and poetry is a home for ambiguity and uncertainty.”
Columnist Alex Beam, at a morning prayer service, speaks of this moment as “a time of great darkness and pessimism.” Nonetheless he believes that, when they can, “people will choose generosity of spirit.”
Retired editor John Bethell quotes approvingly the words, written in both Gaelic and English, on a tombstone he has discovered in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia: “We look to the future, but we do not forget the past.”
Becca Levy, a young researcher at Yale, has discovered how thinking positively about growing old has an impact on the experience. “The effects were much greater than I anticipated,” she told me about the results of her questionnaires. Having positive attitudes toward life enhances the aging experience significantly, she finds.
Management guru, Warren Bennis, speaking at MIT, his alma mater, quotes the Hollywood entertainer George Burns when he was 100 years old: “I can’t die, I’m booked.” For his own part, Bennis, at 77, speaks of “the pleasure of finding things out.”
Cultural historian and fellow gerontologist Tom Cole, writing out of the Jewish tradition, shares with me something of his own spiritual journey: “I came to see aging as a path that leads to the light.” He draws inspiration from Rabbi Abraham Heschel who argued that “authentic existence requires work and celebration, ritual and prayer, and an appreciation of the nature of time.”
My friend Tom quotes another piece of the rabbi’s wisdom : “Time is the presence of God in the world of space.”
Another old friend, Frank Gross, writes of volunteering in a small house in Kalamazoo where terminally ill people come to be cared for free of charge. “I have learned to sit quietly by the bedsides of our people, not speaking, just sitting there, perhaps quietly holding a hand. I have learned that our people often want the comfort of a hand in their hand or an arm around their shoulders.”
A three-hour performance of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio ,gives awesome expression to the beauty of the events commemorated in this season. Bach’s language set to glorious music displays an impressive mystical approach to Christmas.
The conductor of the concert, Craig Smith, calls this Christmas music “the profoundest thoughts on the matter ever uttered.” He must be referring to such passages as the chorale that says (in a translation that limps): “Here is born a God and also a human being.” And later, the alto sings of where the new born is to be found: “He lives here (in my heart), to His and my delight.”
The words of all the people quoted here can serve as motive for probing the meaning of Christmas and other religious feasts of this season. These sentiments of thoughtful people prod us to go beyond shopping and busyness to what lies beyond. At root, Christmas celebrates human life raised to a new level. Yes, we remain fragile, capable of betrayal of ourselves and others, and our peace is threatened by war and rumors of war. But the human heart is capable of unselfish love that redeems the world.
This is a time for being thankful for everything that makes our lives precious. It is a season for rising above the infighting with family members and others that so often deprives everyone involved of peace and happiness. Christmas at its best is a summons to recognizing the divine in us and in others.
It is also time for compassion toward those who, for whatever reason, are barred from the feast. The poor, among them those who are employed in one or more jobs for inadequate pay, need active concern for their well-being. So do those who have been reduced to isolation. The values behind the Christmas celebration belong to the whole human family.
Richard Griffin