The Fourth Sunday of Advent
21st December 2024
Greetings.
Today is the Winter Solstice and by happy coincidence the appointed antiphon for the Magnificat reads, O Dayspring, splendour of light eternal and sun of righteousness: come and enlighten those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death. It is one of seven antiphons used at Evening Prayer in the last week of Advent all ascribing particular characteristics to the Redeemer for whose coming we pray. The antiphons are best known through the much-loved Advent hymn O come, O come, Emmanuel, in which today's text is rendered, O come, thou dayspring, come and cheer our spirits by thine advent here: disperse the gloomy clouds of night and death's dark shadows put to flight.
Earlier this morning I watched live coverage of the Solstice gathering at Stonehenge. I'm sure that on a crisp, clear morning it must be quite thrilling to watch the sun rise in alignment with those ancient stones. But this morning the gloomy clouds stubbornly refused to clear and all remained darkly shadowed. In short, while the cosmic drama proceeded, nothing much was apparent to the human eye. And it was probably much the same in Bethlehem all those years ago. That a young woman gave birth in poverty was hardly extraordinary. It happened all the time, and still does. Most of us have known many Christmases and the excitement we knew as children is a distant memory. Perhaps the sense of expectation expressed in the Advent Antiphons doesn't match our mood and we might shrug our shoulders as we scrub the parsnips and ask, What's new this Christmas? On the face of it, perhaps nothing much, but just as this morning's cosmic drama unfolded invisible to the human eye, so the Holy Spirit, dwelling in our hearts by faith, seeds eternal hope in us. The great mystery of the Divine can never be known fully to the human mind , yet the clouds can lift sufficiently to nourish our hearts with the wonderful gifts of grace, not least joy and peace. May we all abound in those gifts and share them abundantly this Christmas season.
Every blessing,
Charles Booth
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