Christmas

Today is 1 January. It seems like a strange time to write about Christmas as perhaps it would seem better to write about New Year or the forthcoming festival of the Epiphany. Instead, I chose to write about Christmas a this is the very middle of Christmas. 

Christmas is a festival that lasts only about 12 days or 13 nights. It starts on the eve of the 24th of December and ends at midnight of the fifth of January. January 6 is obviously a different festival, the festival of the Epiphany. In some ways, somewhere between the 31st of December and the first of January is the middle of Christmas. 

I also want to write about silence. Again this may seem like a strange topic as Christmas is the time with family, the time of parties, and silence is something that comes at the end of all these gatherings, when we are tired and want to got to sleep. 

Let us explore the qualities of silence, qualities such as its golden nature, according to the popular saying: "Silence is golden." Can we truly be silent? If we take a moment of solitude, when natures is naturally "silent" and listen carefully, one of the experiences we may have is not of really silence. Deep within in us is a voice with an almost constant commentary. This inner, incessant voice, in a way, overpowers the silence we strive to attain. The silence within does not match the silence without. 

If we look at silence in this way, then we may arrive at another perspective of the gold, that adjective for silence. Gold as we know is the best conductor of warmth. This for me is its real value. Thus, when refer to silence as golden, could it be possible that silence, used in this cliche, is actually a conveyor of warmth?

When we are silent, others may be heard. When we are silent, our entire being is in a sense at rest. We were are silent, the being of another, pours into speech, and makes an impression upon the listener of warmth or coldness. When we are silent, we allow others to share more, not because they speak more, but because we are prepared to listen. When we are genuinely silent, our opinions, judgement, preconceptions, lose their strength. Our openness becomes more evident, and it is this openness that begins to fill with our warmth., ready to embrace the warmth brought by the other who speaks. 

Today, we live in a world full of noise, of movement, of agitation, even during Christmas time. Stillness, silence, is very difficult to achieve for many, including me. For some, it may even have lost its value. Christmas is a time of great silence for us. It allows us to hear the rejoicing of the heavens as the Christ child descends to earth. It allows us to hear the Christ within us who speaks to us daily and perhaps is not often heard. Christmas is a festival marked at both ends by silence. A silence on earth on the night the shepherds heard the angels through a dream (Gospel of Luke). And at the other end, the silence in the world where three wise men pursue a star to the birthplace of the Christ child (Gospel of Matthew). What is it in the heart of the shepherds that allowed them to hear the angels sing? What is it in the heart of the three wise men, that allowed a star in the sky to speak to them of the birth of the Christ child? And more importantly, for modern day man, what will allow our hearts to be silent to hear the Christ within us?

For me, with these questions, lies the wonder that is Christmas. Thirteen nights of silence to listen to humanity sing in chorus with the angels the birth of the Christ child.