ANGELA MERICI CENTER: BRANCHES
Be A Christmas Tree BY GINNY SCHAEFFER
O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree How lovely are thy branches. —A Traditional Christmas Carol As the story goes, a young woman is preparing her first Christmas ham for the oven. As she does so, her husband watches in astonishment as she cuts the end off and puts it aside. Quite surprised, he asks his wife, “Why?” Without skipping a beat, she answers that that is what she always saw her mother do.
With her curiosity piqued, she later calls her mother and asks the same question. Her mother’s response, “It wouldn’t fit in my pan otherwise.” Rituals and traditions are important parts of our lives. Without giving them much thought, we repeat rituals passed down to us through the generations, the purpose of them long forgotten.
Nothing could be truer than how we celebrate Christmas. From what we eat, what we sing and wear, to the greetings that come out of our mouths, we adhere to traditions that have been ingrained in our memories, hearts, and souls.
In Christmas services around the world, we will hear the hope-filled words from the Gospel of John, “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.” ( Jn 1:5)
The branches of that tree reach out and invite us into both the glory and commonality of Christmas. It is a human story after all, the story of a family. A child is born. Yes, the circumstances are less than ideal. He is born in a stable, and a feeding trough becomes his bed because there was no room at the inn for them. Imagine giving birth in a barn, away from family, in the middle of a cold night in a strange town. Yet, it gets worse. Warned in a dream that Herod is so threatened by this newborn child that he is seeking him out to kill him, Joseph takes his small family even further away from the only home he and Mary have ever known, into a foreign land. Just a few days old, Jesus and his parents become refugees, seeking safety in another country.
With this kind of beginning, and his experience of living under a foreign, oppressive regime, Jesus’ message could easily have become one of retribution and revenge. Instead, he teaches and shows us that we are to love one another, not just those nearest and dearest to us, but the stranger, the misfit, and even our enemies. No small task. No easy message. Yet, this is what we are called to do, “To love one another as I have loved you.” ( Jn 15:12)
One of the most bizarre of these, if you take time to step back and ponder it for a moment, is also one of the most pervasive. In some shape, form, or fashion we will During the upcoming Christmas season, I hope that bring a tree into our house or up from the basement, you will have time to sit quietly in a room lit by the string it with lights and fill its branches with ornaments, lights on the tree and open your heart to the message of both old and new. Christmas—that Love came into the world and sparked The oft time frustration of stringing lights and a light that darkness could never extinguish. Then, gathering everyone around to decorate it soon gives way when the Christmas season comes to an end, may each to feelings of wonder. The memories of that small child one of us be like that tree and stretch our arms out like within us, seeing a Christmas tree decked out in all its branches filled with the light of Love. finery, giving a soft hue to a darkened room still leaves Merry Christmas to you and all those you love. us with a sense of awe and joy. The star or angel that we use to top the tree reminds us that even in the darkness we have reason to hope.
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WINTER 2022 | DOME
