Dreaming the World

Today dawned clear and cold, the remnants of our first barely measurable snow visible in the grass. The day has remained chill with a stiff breeze driving the cold into the house at times. That gusty wind has also demonstrated where there are new leaks in our door frames.

It’s the day after the winter solstice here in the northern hemisphere. In a couple of days it will be Christmas Eve and by Christmas Day we should already be able to notice subtle lengthening in the day. The symbolic value of that cannot have been missed by the Church Fathers.

What does get missed frequently at Christmastide is the darkness underlying the light and hope of the season. We tend to forget that Jesus was born into a very dark time for Israel. Judea was heavily burdened by the Roman occupation and there was little hope for relief. Maters only became more dire when Herod, in response to rumors that a new king had been born who would liberate Israel, ordered the genocidal murder of all male Jews under two years old.

This year, as in too many years, brings news of new genocides. It seems always that history repeats with the roles of victim, persecutor, and bystander continually shifting. It often only takes a few generations for communities and countries to forget the horrors they faced, and to begin inflicting them on others.

There is great irony in that as our days lengthen and sunlight warms the land, governments based on greed and hate continue to come to power here and around the world, often in the name of Jesus who taught kindness, tolerance, healing, and peace making.

I find it ironic as well that holiday television is filled with images of snow, even as white Christmases become ever more unlikely. It often seems to me that people are too driven by consumption and distraction to notice, or care, that many governments are actively working to destroy the non-human world we depend on for our survival.

As we approach Christmas and the gathering light, let’s also acknowledge the growing darkness generated by those driven by greed and hatred, and those who espouse Christianity but are unwilling to follow Jesus’ teachings.

It’s a few minutes after four and the sun has set; dusk is quickly settling over the field and woods. The busy flocks of birds that were foraging in the field have flown home to roost. We wish them well on this frigid night. After all, we are, as Saint Francis noted more than a century ago, in this life together.