Reflection upon the biblical narrative about the visit of the Magi often overlooks the arduous difficulties they must have endured. Frequently our analysis of this event is swift and thin: The Wise Men see the declarative Star, set upon their journey and find and worship Jesus Christ. It is easy to assume that their journey was as sweet and simple as a crosstown excursion to beloved friends and family.

Eliot’s “Journey of the Magi,” as well as a careful consideration of the biblical texts, provides a different perspective: The journey was hard. According to Eliot it was a “cold coming” at “the worse time of the year” in the “very dead of winter.” His words are almost reminiscent of the last minute shopping we must endure – like some hard but necessary penance.

Christ is the reason for Christmas. Although this may be philologically obvious, it is rarely experienced, observed and celebrated in this way. In practice it is simply a tedious holiday without the requisite holiness that such an event should inspire.

As we begin our journey to Christmas, let us be wise. Jesus is “the reason for the season.” He is God with us and, as such, let us appreciate that a Holy Day such as this calls us to proper preparation.

Christmas can be a galling season, a time when we are so sick of the commercialism and “sore-footedness” that we simply want to lay “down in the melting snow” and resist, refuse and rest. Enough is enough! Or so we say.

But, with the wayward camels, we continue. And, also like the wayward camels, we ask ourselves “why?” Why all of the fuss and the bother? Why the seasonal madness? Many answers to these questions may be offered and, frequently, they are almost as complicated and convoluted as a string of Christmas lights that never seem to untangle.

Unlike many of us, the Magi journeyed with purpose. They pilgrimaged towards God. Their overarching purpose, and thus their power, was to find and worship the King of Kings. Upon finding him, Jesus Christ, they presented their gifts. As we move towards Christmas, that day when all of our careful preparation will come to an inglorious end of pillaged presents and bloated bellies, let us be mindful of why we come. We are preparing a way by which Christ, the greatest gift and most glorious feast, will be manifested. Sore-footed or not, we do what we do for Jesus. We come to worship him. With this in mind, let us “make straight the way of the Lord” by ordering our ways according to the Magi’s wisdom.

Advent proclaims an inspired constellation of regret and redemption, a set of heavenly reminders of our very earthy existence. During this Holy Season when we celebrate “Christ will come, Christ is come and Christ will come again,” we are afforded a number of profoundly painful opportunities for Spirit-inspired self-evaluation.

Eliot’s Magi were no exception to this. Early in their pilgrimage they were mired in “regret.” Having summered in “palaces” among “silken girls bringing sherbet” resulted in considerable delay. Now, mucking about in the sodden soil, they have the opportunity to revisit their own reluctance and delay.

The Bible does not tell us much about the Magi, but is it possible that these wise souls “humped” their way through a long penance, from Babylon to the Christmas Babe, in order to practically atone for the wasted time spent in “summer palaces” with “silken girls” and “sherbet?” Certainly this is an extra-biblical and poetic suggestion, and yet have we not also “humped” our way to the Lord with our own set of regretted burdens and their requisite penances? As the perpetually late in-law, do we not arrive with both apologies and armloads of well-wishes?

We all have our regrets. And yet the true Christmas Table is prepared and God the Father urges us to join Him. He has come with mercy in his wings. He is come with grace for all. He will come again. While desire and delay may have compromised our “instant obedience,” and we do so deeply regret and repent of this, God calls us to join Him. Will we walk the road of regret and redemption?

For just about a decade I was posted to a very remote location in the northern part of central Canada. Upon my initial departure one of my mentors told me that my congregation would consist of “dogs, demons and drunks.” Although somewhat exaggerated in his analysis, there was a large measure of truth in his pronouncement.

There were, however, “perks” to this placement. It was, to my thinking, one of the most geographically beautiful locations on earth. Another “perk,” and more to the point, was that I had two friends who owned time share property off the gulf coast of Florida. Frequently, around Christmas, I would receive an “all expenses paid” invitation to spend a week or two with them on the island. Who could refuse? By that time, in northern Manitoba, it was extremely cold, and it was also dark a great deal of the day. A week or two of tropical relief was just what I needed.

Although most people are not often afforded such luxuries, it is quite obvious that many Western people live “terraced” lives that have been somewhat sheltered from (or elevated above) the hardships that most of the world experiences. While we are certainly not lavished with luxury, there are many amenities that we richly enjoy --and believe we deserve.

I am not sure that we should regret these gifts that we have been given, but our “terraced” position should encourage a heightened perspective. During Advent we travel with the Holy Family through the hardships they endured for God’s greater glory. They gave all, embracing poverty, for our enrichment. They became poor so that God’s greatest gift might be enjoyed by us all. They became strangers in a foreign land so that we might enjoy citizenship in God’s kingdom.

As we continue our pilgrimage toward Christmas, let us appreciate the graces we have been given. Let us, with the Holy Family and in imitation of Jesus Christ himself, seek to live lives that gift other people.

I hate shopping. If I must shop I prefer purchasing by catalogue or online. I insist upon knowing what I want ahead of time, buying five pair of each item, and getting out as fast as I can. If planned well, this method relieves a great deal of stress.

I especially hate Christmas shopping. It’s not that I do not enjoy purchasing gifts for family and friends because, in fact, I do. Discovering just the right gift, and presenting it, is a real delight. It is the “cursing and grumbling” of the liquored and loose “camel men” that I despise. Cacophonous hawkers and crowding gawkers are what I find most offensive.

Many of us experience the same seasonal revulsion. Rampant consumerism, coupled with rampaging shoppers, detract from what Christmas is all about: Christ. Instead we are subjected to hostility, “high prices” and dirt. We do, indeed, have a hard time of it. No doubt, like Eliot’s “camel men,” we would far prefer “running away.”

Not much has changed since those days before our Lord’s birth. While “peace on earth” was the angelically declared outcome, the process leading up to the Christ-event was neither peaceful nor people-friendly. Although a Star may have illumined the way, the path toward Bethlehem was littered with unjust expectations, insufficient supplies, price-hiking and inadequate shelter.

As Christmas closes in upon us, with all of its expectations and demands, let us recall the ways and words of the wise. Mary and Joseph, far from being battered about by the whims and impulses of unjust sovereigns and systems, were governed by God’s prophetic and well-ordered providence. “We have seen his star…and have come to worship him.”

Secularism and shopping malls each contribute to the fatalism and dysfunction that dominates the Christmas holidays. Both scream “ME!” without restraint or embarrassment. Given this – and our deteriorating cultural condition, social isolation and lack of civility – is it any wonder that we hear “voices singing in our ears…that this [is] folly”?

It is folly to sing songs about a season we do not really recognize or about a person in whom we do not really believe. What folly to expend effort and purchase presents when our “vision” is entirely cast upon this life to the neglect of the True Life: Christ himself. Why set a fine table when, in practice, we refuse the feast of God who is Jesus Christ the Bread of Life? Without the primacy of Christ and the direction of the Holy Spirit, all is folly and vanity. Without Christ in Christmas we do not have much to celebrate. All we have, without Christ, is seasonal aggravation and the nauseating anticipation of unwelcome in-laws. (Let’s be honest!)

Christians are often no different than secularists. Although we claim to believe in Christ, our attitudes and actions do not reflect this relationship. The “Star” we follow is a discount flyer. The “manger” we visit is a fast food restaurant. The “worship” we offer is little more than a respectful nod -- without sacrifice or even the requisite “Drummer Boy” postlude. We have our routines and our rituals without the dynamic sense of relational reality.

It is folly for Christians to behave as secularists who have no appreciation for Christ as God’s supreme gift. Maybe we should stage a Christmas moratorium this year: No celebration without Christ! Maybe we should say “No!” to Christmas until we can behaviorally say “Yes!” to Christ.

My wife and I celebrate different Christmas seasons. I celebrate a monastic Christmas that is extremely quiet and absent of any fuss and flair. In other words, it is as neatly groomed as a Cistercian’s pate. On the other hand, my wife celebrates a Victorian Christmas. To her, nothing says “Holy Day” like a tree that is laden with “stuff” that we do not need. Tinsel, balls, bulbs, popcorn, ribbons, lace and Star Trek figures “grace” our weary tree like the garishly misapplied make-up of a teenager. “Resistance is [indeed!] futile!”

And then, as might be expected, there is The Tree. Until recently we would trudge over to the nearest market of deforestation and, after hours of unadulterated joy, we would purchase The Tree, pay to have it delivered, scrape its mud-soaked “Charlie Brown” joy across our Living Room and “plant it” beneath our heating vent. I have never understood why killing a tree is a celebratory action.

One of the difficulties that we often overlook during the Christmas Holidays is its prophetic pall. If we carefully read the biblical narratives, however, it is not hard to miss. Nevertheless, as most of us spend our days denying death, it is often neglected. In fact, as the song says, “the Son of God came forth to die.” This emphasis must not be minimized or overlooked.

We focus upon (and properly so) “joy to the world,” the singing of angels and the wise presentation of gifts. And, of course, Christ is to be celebrated. He is the “temperate valley” and the “water stream” at whom we arrive after an arduous journey. Christmas is the new “dawn” of a new day after a very long season of passage and preparation.

But, while celebrating these things, there are also “three trees on a low sky.” Eliot’s intention is clear: The Christmas journey always suggests death. As such, the “three trees on a low sky” lend prophetic power and perspective to the “temperate valley” we seek to create during this Holy Season. With such a perspective, the holiday joys become all the more precious and poignant.

Eliot’s Magi pass through the outer-limits (“a running stream and a water-mill”) into the core of city life (“a tavern”) to find that business is as usual. Chosen ignorance and closed-fisted greed are the order of the day. The “Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver” remind us of this and at least three other things.

First, miracles are often overlooked. The wise seek Christ and are attentive to divine direction while the foolish ignore the “open door” (like a window into heaven) provided them. Second, and even more disturbing, these words hint at the potential of betrayal (“pieces of silver”) to which any beloved disciple can fall prey. Do our Advent actions betray the intention of Christmas? Finally, these words from Eliot insist that when chosen ignorance and closed-fisted greed dominate our attention and agendas we are left with little but “empty wine skins.”

How many of us, most especially during the Christmas Holy-Days, fall into the trap of intemperance, ignorance and greed? How many of us, especially during the holiday haste, entirely overlook the real reason for the Season? How often does our haste blind us to the Holy? How frequently does greed retard grace? Are we feeling a bit like “empty wine skins”?

When we drink from the “broken cisterns” of this world - taverns, greed, incivility and selfishness – how can we expect direction? What can we expect from “empty wine skins”? In order to see the Star and be guided by its Light, we must first clear our minds and hearts of disordered passions. We must renounce, and in practice reject, the “world, the flesh and the devil.”

This is not easy to do, especially during the season of Advent. Our culture is governed by an economy of indulgence. This has led to a grasping and angry sense of entitlement. We, as well as our children, have come to expect a great deal. Our desire to “get” flies in the face of the Holy Family’s determination to “give.”

Christmas is a time of celebration. Unfortunately, at least within our culture, this Holy Season has been desecrated. Misinformation bombards us through almost every means of social media. Even respectful joy, let alone biblical and theological awareness, has been almost entirely lost. Rarely do we ever see or hear a Christmas story that has been informed by the Bible. Instead we are dominated by the childish myths of ignorance and destruction.

Eliot’s Magi, or any inspired journey that the wise may undertake, is full of difficulties. It is full of good intentions and, often, false starts and misinformation. But we must follow the Star that appears upon our horizon. We must go when and where God leads. But, if we are guided, if we are listening, if we have denied ourselves in some small way, we will by God’s grace arrive at the place where Christ resides.

What is Christmas all about? If we consult “the world, the flesh and the devil” we will never arrive at an answer --- or at the House of Bread (Bethlehem) God intends. Instead, and unfortunately, we will be misled by gross misinformation.

The world tells us that Christmas is about having “more.” Usually this means more shopping for more people for more “stuff” that, more likely than not, we could live without. “More” is the message.

The flesh responds well to the world’s emphasis on “more.” Safety, security and self-assurance, or so we are taught, can be secured through having “more” of what is “mine.” “More” is, so to speak, the psychological and social “architecture” of Babel. It is our insufficient defense against insecurity.

The devil entirely supports the Christ-less holidays, most especially if our holidays are not Holy Days. If he and his minions can broker some superficial acknowledgement of Christ, without the requisite demands, Hell has won. If he can promise all while delivering nothing, his purpose has been achieved.

Jesus knew this. Our Lord’s wilderness temptations illustrate this. We have yet to learn or apply it. And so we must continue. We must move past the noisy nonsense of secular and satanic demands. The only “more” that we need is more of Jesus.

Christmas has a sense of immediacy attached to it. As with Holy Scripture, Christmas tells us that “Now is the time” and “Today is the day of salvation.” But, as with the Magi, the “now” often submits to “later” and “today” often succumbs to “tonight.” Delays and detours invariably dominate.

I think that many of us can relate to this terrible trajectory of Eliot’s words. Have we not all experienced the rush and bother of getting everyone ready and out the door for the perennial holiday visit? And soon, far too soon, do we not hear the children bawling, “Are we there yet?” and “How much longer before we arrive?” By the time we “arrive at evening,” it is, indeed, “not a moment too soon.”

The bawling of our children is a beckoning reminder. Christmas, like life, is a journey: We prepare, we continue, we arrive. And, also like Christmas, every journey presents unique challenges. This process, always inaugurated by personal observation (the Magi searched for a sign) and divine assistance (the Lord provided the Star and the Light), requires our utmost and immediate attention. Following where God leads, being instant in obedience, is imperative. Nevertheless, while being instant in our following, we must be realistic. Responding to the “now” and “today” is only a beginning. Obedience is simply a continuing. Let us, in spite of our delays, continue to follow the Christmas vision that God has afforded us. By God’s good grace we will find that we will arrive in God’s good time…and “not a moment too soon.”

Place is important. We all need that sense of place, that sense that we are where we should be. It is a comfort to know that we have, finally, arrived.

I vividly recall both the senses and sounds of family holiday gatherings. After a long journey we would finally arrive at “Granny’s” home. Although I do not remember much about the journey, I clearly recall waking up the next morning. First I would smell the coffee, and then the bacon. Soon I could hear the small and quiet conversations enjoyed by my grandmother, mother, aunts and uncles. Then my cousins would be up. Ever the sluggard upon my bed, I would finally emerge --- hungry and happy. It was a satisfactory place.

Eliot’s pilgrims did not enjoy such amenities. Arriving none too soon, they eventually found (“you may say”) satisfactory lodging. It wasn’t a first rate B & B, in fact it was little more than a dirt-rate motel, but it would do. Being pilgrims, and much-delayed pilgrims at that, they secured the best place that they could. It would serve its intended purpose.

The Magi came to find and worship Christ. They were willing to endure any hardships in order to complete their God-inspired journey --- including, from Eliot’s perspective, a dirt-rate motel. What are we willing to endure to come to that acceptable place of finding and celebrating Christ?

The Christmas holidays present both satisfactory and unsatisfactory moments. While well-wrapped, our holidays often gift us with some very unfortunate surprises. Every child can relate to the elation of Christmas expectation; the well-wrapped gift beneath The Tree that screams, “OPEN ME NOW!!!!!” Similarly, every child can also relate to the experience of Christmas expectation leading to the post-opening deflation associated with receiving underwear. (The husband giving his wife a toolbox for Christmas may inspire similar deflation.)

Imagine a seven year old boy rushing down the stairs on Christmas Day. It is time to open presents! All the gifts are wrapped and arranged like a well-set and beautifully prepared Christmas dinner. This, for this young man, was the “appetizer.” Opening one present, and finding underwear and socks, he is only mildly disappointed. There are still other gifts to open. Finally he comes to a package that he thinks will truly satisfy. Opening it with great anticipation he finds his very own copy of Little Women. Yes…Little Women. Now I ask you: What active seven year old boy wants to read this book? His mother, when asked years later, insists that in fact it was not Little Women, but, rather, Little Men. Whatever!

Christmas provides us the opportunity, and in a very unique way, to “taste and see that the Lord is good.” In him there is no disappointment. Regardless of our circumstances, which at times may be very difficult, God is good. Regardless of our circumstances, despite the difficulties, God is with us and for us. Christ is come…let us celebrate God’s unique gift to and for us.

To remember is not simply to look back upon an event. It is, from a biblical perspective, to relive and actively participate in that event again. The act of remembering is, in practice, recollection; the re-collection of events in such a way as to make them dynamically present here and now. Eucharist, as an example, is re-collection at its best.

St. Francis of Assisi understood this principle. Appreciating how the people of his culture were socially, psychologically, emotionally and spiritually compromised, he devised a means through which the people could actually “participate” in Christmas. This is how the Christmas crèche, the manger scene so many of us put up during the Advent Season, was invented. Francis designed a way by which Christmas could be made real to those who were feeling far-removed from it.

Our task, as well, is to discern and devise ways by which Christ and Christmas can become far more real to neighbors, friends and family. Such well-planned and well-prayed actions help us to realize the reality of an event. It helps us, as well as others, see and experience history in such a way as to want to “do it again.” When we remember well, it is worth repeating. When Christmas passes once again into another year, are we saying “I’m glad that’s over!” or are we hoping that we can “do it again”?

It is a very good thing to question ourselves. Whether we engage in an examination of conscience, or simply revisit decisions that we have made, questioning ourselves is highly commendable.

Eliot’s Wise Men ask an important question, a question that inevitably cuts to the heart of their pilgrimage: “Were we led all that way?” And, of course, if they were not “led,” all of their hardships and sacrifices would be in vain. Good intentions aside (and our gracious Lord does consider good intentions), all of the good will in the world will not compensate for a purposeless pilgrimage.

Or does it? On the one hand it may not. If you intend to go to PEI, but end up in Vancouver, your intention really is of no use. And yet, with a heart that is properly oriented toward God and when we address our misdirection with Christian maturity, progress will be made. It is better however to be attentive to the directions we have been given.

Spiritual journeys require spiritual directives. The biblical Wise Men were provided with a God-given Star by which they were led. We have also been given divine lights by which we can govern our earthly pilgrimage: Holy Spirit, Holy Scripture, Holy Saints (the fellowship of other believers) and Holy Services of Worship all serve as graced guides. As Christmas approaches, as we question ourselves about the right way by which we should proceed through the wilderness of these Holy Days, let us keep Christ and his gracious gifts clearly before us. Let us follow the directives he has provided.

The book of Revelation tells us that the Lamb was “crucified from the foundation of the world.” Our Lord’s birth, therefore, always contained an emphasis upon death. As stated earlier in these meditations, “the Son of God came forth to die.”

Considered in this way, the journey of the Magi represented their own Way of Sorrows. The hardships and sufferings they endured paralleled, in some cosmic way, our Lord’s unique passions. Similarly, our pilgrimage through life holds within it the potential of holiness and sanctification. Our hardships, when properly received, can lead to holy living. Our sufferings, properly navigated, contain sanctifying potential. We can, in practice, carry the heavy burdens others bear --- and with sanctifying effect (Colossians 1: 24).

Consider the Christmas Tree: It is a token of celebration, and yet it harkens back to both our banishment from the Garden (promised redemption) and the Cross of Christ (fulfilled redemption). And what hardships and hopes were carried between these two events! What burdens borne! Moreover, when prayerfully borne and decorated, the Tree carries upon it our own history, heritage and hope. The celebratory Tree reminds us of death and life, suffering and sanctification, sorrow and celebration.

As with the Wise Men, Christmas may suggest an experiential conundrum to us: Life and Death. Having labored long, and done our best, all of our plans may not turn out as we would like. But, in spite of this, we have done what we could and we trust that we were led this way.

Given that the Holy Day season can be a mixture of pleasures and pains, like all of life, we must always keep in mind that Christmas celebrates a Birth. The Birth! Any birth is a joy, a grace, but this birth signaled our “once for all” redemption in and through Jesus Christ. This is a birth worthy of extravagant celebration.

But we must be mindful of who and what we are celebrating. As a whole, our society has entirely lost their perspective on who and why we celebrate. For most people it is a “day off,” “holiday” or “family day.” For others it simply means having a busy burden to redress. Jesus and salvation rarely, if ever, enter into the secular arithmetical equation. The concept of The Holy is beyond imagination. This understood it is little wonder why people have such difficulties during the season of the year. No Jesus, No joy!

But even the Christian must be reminded about why we do what we do. We come to “a Birth.” We come to worship him with the joyful certainty that God is for, with and in us. We come appreciating and celebrating God’s gift of salvation and, consequently, the grace-filled life. For the Christian, there is “no doubt” about what this Holy Day season is about. Let’s not forget or neglect it.

For well over a hundred years, likely two hundred, the nature and content of theological discourse has considerably changed. At one time the Church was concerned about proclaiming faith in Jesus Christ. We boldly asserted that Christ was “the way, the truth and the life.” We boldly affirmed, and without apology, the doctrines of the Virgin birth, salvific death and justifying resurrection of our Lord.

Sadly these affirmations and assertions have been compromised. Now we offer apologies instead of apologetics, “proofs” instead of proclamation and “defenses” instead of declaration. We focus upon the certainty of evidence instead of the evidence of certainty.

A Star “certainly” led the Wise Men. A Birth “certainly” did occur. Angels “certainly” did sing and poor shepherds “certainly” did worship. But these, while “historic,” were decidedly faith-oriented. Faith was the very substance of things hoped for and, finally, seen. Those of us who have come to Christ, who have come to worship him and offer him gifts, come by the gift of faith. We have “no doubt” because we know the Living Christ as communicated through God’s Written Word. Our “evidence” – while proper “evidence” is important – is in our experience of Christ within us. Christ, existing within the “manger” of our hearts, is to be exclaimed and not simply explicated.

Eliot’s Wise Men always return to the same subject: Death. When each of the three major divisions of “Journey of the Magi” are considered a significant number of the verses reference difficulties --- those “small deaths” experienced almost daily.

We all have them. They are part of life. Let me give you one example. My wife is a vegetarian. As such, on Christmas Day, I prepare a “Tofu Turkey” for her and real food for the rest of us. On this particular holiday, however, my wife cut into far more than she had expected. After preparing food for family and friends, and the un-turkey for my wife, we all sat down to a joyous feast. Unfortunately, as my wife sliced into her rice, she discovered that the “wild rice” was wilder than she wished. The “wild” was, in fact, worms. It was a “bitter agony” for her, but I thoroughly enjoyed my turkey on that day.

On a deeper level, however, death is written into life. It is a reality that we all-too-often seek to overlook --- like the worms in the rice. It is not that we Christians are afraid of death; rather, with comedian Woody Allen, we simply do not want to be around it when it happens. The Wise Men, though surprised, did not avoid death. They faced it squarely. The gifts of the Magi, specifically one of them, indicate that they knew the high price of the Incarnation. Death was written within the stars and was central to the Incarnation. Incarnating Christ into our fallen world will mean some form of death for us as well.

Advent is a pilgrimage. Donning the pilgrim’s badge and penitent’s cap we proceed through the Season, we trust, with at least of modicum of devotion. However, after arriving at Christmas and artfully dispensing our due reverence, we all-too-frequently “return to our places” and the petty “kingdoms” we have constructed. Life returns to what it always has been.

Beyond pilgrimage, however, Advent and Christmas proclaim a new “dispensation.” Having trod the Season, and encountered the Son, we are challenged to an entirely new way of living. Our “old” life among “alien people,” as well as our (often unconscious) “clutching” of irrelevant and unnecessary “gods,” must be fully and finally abandoned. Having walked the pilgrim’s way, we must now embrace the disciple’s life. The “old” is gone, and the “new” has arrived.

On my last trip to Canterbury I purchased a Pilgrim’s Badge. This badge features a large “A” which represents the first letter of the phrase “Amor Vincit Omnia,” “Love conquers all.” I frequently wear that badge, although some years have passed since I visited the center of Anglican Christianity. It serves as a reminder of both why Christ came and how, in response, I must live. After truly celebrating Christ and Christmas there is no returning to “business as usual.”

My wife, an English Professor, says that I am an “adequate” writer. She celebrates my “good ideas,” and yet bluntly tells me that there are improvements I can and must make. No doubt, at least partially, these improvements relate to punctuation. As I subscribe to an e. e. cummings (my non-capitalization is deliberate) approach to punctuation, and my wife is rigidly OED oriented, this creates some differences of opinion.

And punctuation is important in both literature and life. Eliot’s narrator flatly tells us that after encountering Christ, and returning home, they were “no longer at ease.” The person of Christ radically altered their sense of place. Advent displaced their attitudes. Christmas displaced their kingdoms. In other words, returning to my guiding illustration, Advent and Christmas are to so punctuate our lives as to insist that an entirely new paragraph (if not entirely new book) be written.

ADVENT! CHRISTMAS! These are words that must not simply “punctuate” the Season, but must radically reorient our approach to spirituality. Encountering the person of Christ must disrupt our sense of “ease” in this world.

As Christians we live under an entirely new dispensation. Shifting us from Law to grace in Jesus Christ, there are also other aspects of the “old dispensation” from which we have been liberated. Through our Lord’s incarnation, in all that this divine act implies, “the world, the flesh and the devil” have been challenged and conquered.

This new dispensation is inaugurated through Christ, secured through the passion of his incarnation, and sealed by the Holy Spirit who has now written the Law of God upon our hearts. Under the new dispensation we desire God’s Person and purposes. The God who lives and moves, who hovers upon our own turbid “waters,” who graces us (albeit differently) like Mary with promised redemption, is now “born” within the broken “stable” our humble existence by the Holy Spirit. The Paraclete empowers us. It is now up to us to say, with Mary, “Be it unto me according to Thy word.”

This is important for us to understand. It is, in fact, imperative. The new dispensation, applied by the Holy Spirit, affords us the ability to live holy lives. If we are alive in God, if the Holy Spirit lives within us, we want to be holy. Will we say, with Mary, “Be it unto me according to Thy word”?

Advent is a “We” Season. Think about it. The promise of redemption was offered to us. The Law, Psalms and Prophets speak to us, insisting that God in Christ is for us. The Annunciation to Mary, and her unique “Yes,” dynamically impacted the us of her betrothal to Joseph and her relationship with family and friends. Mary and Joseph, an us, bore the burden of Christ’s birth. Herod’s census of the whole known world, at the birth of Jesus, demanded a “we” response. Mary’s “Yes” focuses upon us because Jesus saves both me and we. We are the intended recipients of the most unique Christmas Gift.

This “We” Season challenges and confronts the “I” oriented Secular Humanism (and its horrid progeny) that dominate our society. “We” confronts me. “We” challenges our unfortunate individualism. “We” suggests that we are all in the same “boat,” although only a few of us dare to step beyond the bounds of our safe existence in order to walk on water --- imitating Mary’s unique “Fiat!”

One of the reasons I became an Anglican was to more fully participate the “We” of history and tradition. Celebrating Advent and Christmas, a participatory pilgrimage, acknowledges and celebrates the “We” of our journey. We begin. We participate. We celebrate. We return…..challenged and changed together.

My mother’s dearest friend died on Christmas Day. I clearly remember her passing, although I was very young when it occurred. My mother, no doubt, never forgot it or her friend. Although it would be at least forty years before my mother went to be with the Lord, her dearest friend was kept in constant memory --- much like a votive candle or Christmas lights shining in darkness.

Advent and Christmas are notoriously unpleasant for some people. For them, the holidays represent hardship, loss and sorrow. For them, as “Rachel weeping for her children” after the “Slaughter of the Innocents,” Christmas is a season of sorrow.

And this is exactly the place where Eliot’s Magi found themselves. Christmas was Birth and Death, Celebration and Sorrow, hurt and hope. Oddly, looking back upon these events, the Magi anticipate “another death.” Why? The reason is because the Incarnation celebrates redemption in Christ. Christ’s Incarnation, which included death, means life. And, as well, our death in Christ means reunion with all those who have died in Christ before us. If death in Christ means deeper union with him, and reunion with all those who have passed in Christ before us, why should we not be glad?

“BEHOLD a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, / and shall call his name Immanuel.” Isaiah 7:14

“Unto us a child is born, / unto us a son is given” Isaiah 9: 6

“In this was manifested the love of God toward us,/ because that God sent his only-begotten Son into the world that we might live through him.” 1 St. John 4: 9

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,/ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.” Ephesians 1: 3

“ALMIGHTY God, who hast given us thy only-begotten Son to take our nature upon him, and as at this time to be born of a pure Virgin: Grant that we being regenerate, and made thy children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by thy Holy Spirit; through the same our Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the same Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.”