{"id":960,"date":"2008-12-24T22:13:44","date_gmt":"2008-12-24T22:13:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2008\/12\/a-watchful-heart.html"},"modified":"2008-12-24T22:13:44","modified_gmt":"2008-12-24T22:13:44","slug":"a-watchful-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/12\/a-watchful-heart.html","title":{"rendered":"A watchful heart"},"content":{"rendered":"

Via Vatican Radio, the Pope’s Midnight Mass homily.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\"Pope<\/a>
Pope Benedict XVI lights a candle from his private window, during the unveiling ceremony of the crib in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican. The Pope inaugurated this year's Christmas creche, appearing at his window in the Vatican apartments. (AFP\/Filippo Monteforte)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n
\n

Saint Luke\u2019s account of the Christmas story, which we have just heard in the Gospel, tells us that God first raised the veil of his hiddenness to people of very lowly status, people who were looked down upon by society at large \u2013 to shepherds looking after their flocks in the fields around Bethlehem. Luke tells us that they were \u201ckeeping watch\u201d. This phrase reminds us of a central theme of Jesus\u2019s message, which insistently bids us to keep watch, even to the Agony in the Garden \u2013 the command to stay awake, to recognize the Lord\u2019s coming, and to be prepared. Here too the expression seems to imply more than simply being physically awake during the night hour. The shepherds were truly \u201cwatchful\u201d people, with a lively sense of God and of his closeness. They were waiting for God, and were not resigned to his apparent remoteness from their everyday lives. To a watchful heart, the news of great joy can be proclaimed: for you this night the Saviour is born. Only a watchful heart is able to believe the message. Only a watchful heart can instil the courage to set out to find God in the form of a baby in a stable. Let us ask the Lord to help us, too, to become a \u201cwatchful\u201d people.<\/p>\n

Saint Luke tells us, moreover, that the shepherds themselves were \u201csurrounded\u201d by the glory of God, by the cloud of light. They found themselves caught up in the glory that shone around them. Enveloped by the holy cloud, they heard the angels\u2019 song of praise: \u201cGlory to God in the highest heavens and peace on earth to people of his good will\u201d. And who are these people of his good will if not the poor, the watchful, the expectant, those who hope in God\u2019s goodness and seek him, looking to him from afar?<\/p>\n

The Fathers of the Church offer a remarkable commentary on the song that the angels sang to greet the Redeemer. Until that moment \u2013 the Fathers say \u2013 the angels had known God in the grandeur of the universe, in the reason and the beauty of the cosmos that come from him and are a reflection of him. They had heard, so to speak, creation\u2019s silent song of praise and had transformed it into celestial music. But now something new had happened, something that astounded them. The One of whom the universe speaks, the God who sustains all things and bears them in his hands \u2013 he himself had entered into human history, he had become someone who acts and suffers within history. From the joyful amazement that this unimaginable event called forth, from God\u2019s new and further way of making himself known \u2013 say the Fathers \u2013 a new song was born, one verse of which the Christmas Gospel has preserved for us: \u201cGlory to God in the highest heavens and peace to his people on earth\u201d. We might say that, following the structure of Hebrew poetry, the two halves of this double verse say essentially the same thing, but from a different perspective. God\u2019s glory is in the highest heavens, but his high state is now found in the stable \u2013 what was lowly has now become sublime. God\u2019s glory is on the earth, it is the glory of humility and love. And even more: the glory of God is peace. Wherever he is, there is peace. He is present wherever human beings do not attempt, apart from him, and even violently, to turn earth into heaven. He is with those of watchful hearts; with the humble and those who meet him at the level of his own \u201cheight\u201d, the height of humility and love. To these people he gives his peace, so that through them, peace can enter this world.<\/p>\n

The medieval theologian William of Saint Thierry once said that God \u2013 from the time of Adam \u2013 saw that his grandeur provoked resistance in man, that we felt limited in our own being and threatened in our freedom. Therefore God chose a new way. He became a child. He made himself dependent and weak, in need of our love. Now \u2013 this God who has become a child says to us \u2013 you can no longer fear me, you can only love me.<\/p>\n

With these thoughts, we draw near this night to the child of Bethlehem \u2013 to the God who for our sake chose to become a child. In every child we see something of the Child of Bethlehem. Every child asks for our love. This night, then, let us think especially of those children who are denied the love of their parents. Let us think of those street children who do not have the blessing of a family home, of those children who are brutally exploited as soldiers and made instruments of violence, instead of messengers of reconciliation and peace. Let us think of those children who are victims of the industry of pornography and every other appalling form of abuse, and thus are traumatized in the depths of their soul. The Child of Bethlehem summons us once again to do everything in our power to put an end to the suffering of these children; to do everything possible to make the light of Bethlehem touch the heart of every man and woman. Only through the conversion of hearts, only through a change in the depths of our hearts can the cause of all this evil be overcome, only thus can the power of the evil one be defeated. Only if people change will the world change; and in order to change, people need the light that comes from God, the light which so unexpectedly entered into our night.<\/p>\n

And speaking of the Child of Bethlehem, let us think also of the place named Bethlehem, of the land in which Jesus lived, and which he loved so deeply. And let us pray that peace will be established there, that hatred and violence will cease. Let us pray for mutual understanding, that hearts will be opened, so that borders can be opened. Let us pray that peace will descend there, the peace of which the angels sang that night.
\nIn Psalm 96 [95], Israel, and the Church, praises God\u2019s grandeur manifested in creation. All creatures are called to join in this song of praise, and so the Psalm also contains the invitation: \u201cLet all the trees of the wood sing for joy before the Lord, for he comes\u201d (v. 12ff.). The Church reads this Psalm as a prophecy and also as a task. The coming of God to Bethlehem took place in silence. Only the shepherds keeping watch were, for a moment, surrounded by the light-filled radiance of his presence and could listen to something of that new song, born of the wonder and joy of the angels at God\u2019s coming.<\/p>\n

This silent coming of God\u2019s glory continues throughout the centuries. Wherever there is faith, wherever his word is proclaimed and heard, there God gathers people together and gives himself to them in his Body; he makes them his Body. God \u201ccomes\u201d. And in this way our hearts are awakened. The new song of the angels becomes the song of all those who, throughout the centuries, sing ever anew of God\u2019s coming as a child \u2013 and rejoice deep in their hearts. And the trees of the wood go out to him and exult. The tree in Saint Peter\u2019s Square speaks of him, it wants to reflect his splendour and to say: Yes, he has come, and the trees of the wood acclaim him. The trees in the cities and in our homes should be something more than a festive custom: they point to the One who is the reason for our joy \u2013 the God who for our sake became a child. In the end, this song of praise, at the deepest level, speaks of him who is the very tree of new-found life. Through faith in him we receive life. In the Sacrament of the Eucharist he gives himself to us \u2013 he gives us a life that reaches into eternity. At this hour we join in creation\u2019s song of praise, and our praise is at the same time a prayer: Yes, Lord, help us to see something of the splendour of your glory. And grant peace on earth. Make us men and women of your peace. Amen.<\/p>\n

\n

\"A<\/a>
A child walks past a statue of Baby Jesus during the Christmas Midnight Mass celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican early Thursday, Dec. 25, 2008. (AP Photo\/Gregorio Borgia)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Via Vatican Radio, the Pope’s Midnight Mass homily. Saint Luke\u2019s account of the Christmas story, which we have just heard in the Gospel, tells us that God first raised the veil of his hiddenness to people of very lowly status, people who were looked down upon by society at large \u2013 to shepherds looking after…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nA watchful heart - Via Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/12\/a-watchful-heart.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A watchful heart - Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Via Vatican Radio, the Pope’s Midnight Mass homily. 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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/author\/awelborn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/960\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}