SPARKS OF ADVENT LIGHT
BY JOAN CHITTISTER
Behind all the Santa Claus characters, the red bows, the bells, and the reindeer that comes with Christmas, there is a haunting scene from another age, a diorama almost lost to this one in the name of political correctness. This child, born to poor parents , birthed in a stable, laid in a manger,watched over by angels and stars, by shepherds and wise men, by Mary and Joseph and the sheep on the hill. This child, we know, is special. But this specialness is also the uncomfortable reminder of other children, equally special, not nearly so well loved in our own time.
Perhaps never in our lives have we had to live with the knowledge of so much violence to children: children beaten, children abandoned, children violated sexually, children unwanted, children starving, children murdered. We wince at the very thought of it.We turn away, turn the dial, turn the conversation in other directions. It is simply too much to think about, too much to deal with.
But why the disbelief? Why the horror? Why the anger? After all, people everywhere are being beaten, killed, raped, and murdered. Children are just one more class of the same degradation. So what is the difference?
The difference is the future. Our future. These children, these innocents, are being sacrificed for the breakdown in mental health systems, for the permissiveness of the society, for the toxicity level of the environment, for the violence we take for granted, the violence we condone, the violence we breed in this century. Every one of them who suffers like this costs us another piece of hope in the future. Every one of them we lose marks the loss of a piece of our own life.
Maybe that’s why Jesus came as a child: to remind us that what we do not care for from infancy, will rob us of the future we seek. Will rob us of its intelligence its creativity, its sense of possibility, its promise.
Christmas, the birth of Jesus, reminds us that every child born is another chance to save the world, to make it better, to bring it joy.
No doubt about it, the birth of Jesus is a call for all of us to care for the innocent, to protect the defenseless, to build the future.
Make your Christmas merry by giving the child you do not know the opportunity to believe in people, to bring joy into our lives, to grow up better rather than bitter.
Surely, Christmas has something important to do with reminding all of us to save the children of the world so that someday they can also save the world for us. -SISTER JOAN CHITTISTER
"So today, Christmas Day and throughout the years ahead, think of all children and what you can do to advocate for them until they can advocate for themselves and take their rightful place in society.” As Sister Joan Chittister writes, ‘...to save the children of the world so that someday they can also save the world for us.’
Speak softly.
Listen gently.
Love unconditionally
Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year
-Marge
