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2nd Sunday Advent

For a number of years, I lived with a paid-up member of the supporters club of the NZSO (New Zealand Symphony Orchestra).

There were occasions when I would accompany this person to a concert by the orchestra.

If you are a concertgoer you may well be aware of an intriguing ritual which takes place.

Persons arrive, gather in the atrium and chat. The chat continues as they make their way into the concert hall and find their seats. The hum of chatter fills the hall.

Suddenly, the main concert hall lights are dimmed. There is silence. No direction has been given, no sign flashes on a screen.

Everyone stops talking, and sit in darkness; however, the darkness is not one of fear, anxiety or panic.

Rather the darkness and indeed the silence is one of eager anticipation, of expectation, of readiness.

Not all the concert hall is in darkness; the stage is lit. while the stage curtains are still drawn, movement and sound are heard.

The shift in light directs the audience attention.

This ritual helps me to access the season of Advent.

From the noisiness and business of my world, I am invited to shift my focus, sit quietly in the darkness, and notice the noise and movement behind the curtains – Incarnation is happening, my God is in my world.

Might it be, that my sitting in darkness is necessary for me to recognise my God?

Might it be a pre-condition to the celebration of Christmas?

“The people who walked [sat] in darkness have seen a great light.” (Is. 9:2)

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Advent: A new liturgical year

Our liturgical year is rapidly drawing to a close.

A major question for Catholic parishes is often, “Where did we store the Advent wreath?”

This question is quickly followed by, “Are the statues for the Church Nativity crib where they ought to be?”

It is amazing how far a donkey, and indeed camels, can wander in a year!

It is not only the liturgical calendar: here in the city where I live, the annual Santa parade was held last weekend – enough said!

Simeon with the Christ Child painting was found unfinished upon Rembrandt’s death in 1669.

The painting hangs in the National Museum, Stockholm.

A habit I have used for many years is to spend time with a painting by the Dutch artist, Rembrandt Van Rijn, known as ‘Simeon with the Christ Child’.

The painting celebrates the Gospel story when the parents of Jesus bring the new-born to the temple with them for the purification rites proper to the Law of Moses (Lk. 2: 22 – 39).

The Rembrandt painting has the aged man Simeon taking hold of the child.

What I find reflective in the painting is that Simeon’s eyes are shut, and the child’s eyes are open.

I take the person of aged Simeon as a metaphor for the year ending, bringing closure, as it were, to all that has been.

I take the newborn, with eyes open, as a metaphor for the beginning of the year and for what is to come and am reminded of observing infant children who are alert to every sound, every voice that enters the room.

Without understanding, there is an alertness within them to the new and different.

There is, for me, a gentleness to the way aged Simeon holds the new-born child.

Again, when I use the painting as a metaphor, I am encouraged to welcome and hold the new year in a gentle manner, allowing the year to grow as a child grows, to allow the year to unfold as a child unfolds and develops.

All, without haste!

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Christ the King

The Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770 – 1844) was commissioned to sculpt a figure of Christ called Christus.

The original stands in Copenhagen Cathedral.

Perhaps this sculpture’s most frequently retold story centres on Thorvaldsen’s frustration in creating the proper position for Christ’s arms.

Thorvaldsen’s early sketches and models show Christ’s arms raised above his head in the blessing position.

Thorvaldsen had prepared the model with the outstretched arms raised above the head of the figure of Christ.

The framework used for the model could not sustain the weight of the clay, and the arms slumped during the night from the blessing position to the waist.

Upon seeing this new pose when he arrived the following day, Thorvaldsen quickly made it permanent.

Today, when you view the finished statue, the arms and hands are open and inviting.

This may well be an image for us to reflect on as we celebrate this feast of Christ the King.

Perhaps the most real blessing is a posture of open arms and hands, exclaiming, as the inscription at the base of the sculpture reads, “Kommer til mig” (“Come unto me”) with a reference to the Scripture verse from Matthew 11: 28

 

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33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time

Our Sunday Gospel is familiar to many of us. (Matthew 25: 14 – 30)

It is headed as ‘The Parable of the Talents’ and is in many Gospel editions.

It includes the line, “But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.(v. 18)

TradeMe is New Zealand’s largest online auction and classifieds website, where you can bid for everything from a pair of socks to a holiday house! The site was founded in 1999 by a young New Zealand entrepreneur, Sam Morgan. Morgan sold the enterprise in 2006 for $700 million dollars!

One of the more notable auctions happened in May 2009. The advertisement read, “Buy a Tractor and get a 20-acre farm for free.” Purchase of the tractor did come with one rather unusual added feature: a farm, the 8.1h block in the Catlins was an added bonus for whoever wins the tractor auction.

TradeMe lists has one of its busiest times of the year being immediately after Christmas – the online site is flooded with unwanted Christmas presents!

Lawnmowers, hair dryers, air fryers, cookware set, electric razors – the list is endless!

So, when does a present become a gift? When does it cease to hold the attribute of giftedness? When can it be hidden in the garden?

Have you ever held onto a gift, not because of any need you have for the gift but rather because of the one who has given you the gift!

Each time you open the cardboard and espy the unneeded blender, or perhaps open the wardrobe and see the bathroom robe, which is not your colour – memories of the one who gave you the gift flood the memory and the heart.

I suggest this is the true purpose of the gift – to re-member.

When my God has flooded me with the gift of words of the writer, or the palette of the artist, or the green fingers of the gardener, then these words, colours and green fingers offer me the opportunity to remember and to sing as the Psalmist sings:

“They are more precious than gold,
than much pure gold;
they are sweeter than honey,
than honey from the comb.” (19:10)

The intriguing by-line which accompanies this image reads, “Must have kitchen tools: 10 amazing kitchen tools to make your life easy.”

If only life could, indeed, be made easy through the purchase of kitchen tools?!!