Sunday Reflection with Fr Robin Gibbons - The Holy Family December 31st 2017

Simeon with Christ Child by Rembrandt - Wiki Art

Has something happened to Christmas? Several people to whom I wished a Happy Christmas season (and some church goers) responded with 'but it's over!' I simply pressed home my own understanding that for the Church the twelve days were still there in the Octave and in the Epiphany. Thinking about this, a lot of perception is driven by media and commercial interests. All the main street decorations hang about a bit, but lots store and shop decorations disappear pretty soon after Boxing Day and that change has its impact on those for whom Christmas is not a religious festival. For me it's the nativity scenes, our cribs and our icons that make this season what it is.

Although I belong to a large immediate family and always have been used to the idea of big extended families, recent Christmases have rarely been family occasions in that sense, but because of that the crib and the nativity icon have become a special focus of prayer in my home. I did without a tree this year and only put up cards, nevertheless the image of the nativity icon surrounded by votive lights and greenery and a beautiful crib, a present from very dear friends (who add to it each year) brings another dimension into the warmth of the house, there I have sat in front of it each night and as I remain in stillness so many people living and dead, and yes animals and creatures have come to mind, linked together in the prayer of the little Jesus of the crib.

I feel like the figure of Don Camillo, in Giovanni Guareschi's stories of that name, who when he was repainting the crib figures with his friend Peppone, felt the warmth of the Christ child in their friendship. For him the Ox and Ass represented both of them, but it reminded me too that like the Ox and the Ass I belong in the crib scene with all of you and yes, all living creatures, because greater than our earthly families in that of God's family, which is where we truly belong.

So as we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family as the old year draws to its close, maybe we need to return to the crib, to simply be there. In that simple scene all that we are left with is love, and as we know from St John's words that is simply what God is, Love.

There's one more picture that we need to link with the crib, one that has a more haunting appearance and yet is part of the story. Simeon and Anna meet and 'see' Jesus in the Temple; they like the animals, shepherds and Magi recognize just who this child is, where so many others do not! Yet this tale is also an encouragement to us, the nativity scene is an antidote to the commercial and secular mentality around us, the story of Simeon and Anna is a reminder that youth and age belong together, that the very end of our life is as important as the very beginning and we must value every single stage of it and protect those that are vulnerable. In the eyes of Simeon is the light of eternity, found not outside of himself but in the interaction of humble love between an old man on his last journey home and a baby starting out in hope!

Prayer on the Holy Family by Pope Francis ( from Amoris laetitia)

Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
in you we contemplate
the splendour of true love;
to you we turn with trust.

Holy Family of Nazareth,
grant that our families too may be places of communion and prayer,
authentic schools of the Gospel
and small domestic churches.

Holy Family of Nazareth,
may families never again experience
violence, rejection and division;
may all who have been hurt or scandalized
find ready comfort and healing.

Holy Family of Nazareth,
make us once more mindful
of the sacredness and inviolability of the family,
and its beauty in God's plan.
Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
Graciously hear our prayer.
Amen.

Lectio divina
From Seeing Salvation by Neil McGregor 2000

On the Nunc Dimittis

…"But if we no longer heed the messages of the great Christian images of the past, and admire them mainly for aesthetic qualities, there is one traditional image of Christ that, I believe, remains universally valid. It moves people from any cultural background, whether or not they recognize it as an image of the incarnate God.

It is the Christ Child. Like all babies, the infant Christ is the focus of our aspirations and our apprehensions. We know what he will have to endure, and we want to protect him from it. If there is one emotion that can come close to uniting all humanity, it is surely awe in the face of a new-born child - tender, over-whelming, humbling, strengthening. No artist ever painted it more powerfully than Rembrandt in the picture now in the museum of Stockholm.

The Child's parents have just handed him to Simeon, the priest in the Temple. And although he appears to be blind, he sees the essential. He intuits divinity and he knows all will now be well...Rembrandt, as so often, concentrates on the heart of the matter; he shows the scene in cinematic close-up. Simeon is transfigured; in his arms he holds Christ. But he and Anna, the aged prophetess (a figure added by a later artist), appear like any grateful grandparents near the end of their days, and Christ is every baby: a newborn child whom all are moved to protect and love, and on whom all hopes are fixed, until the last generation".

Fr Robin Gibbons is an Eastern Rite Catholic Chaplain for the Melkites in the UK. He is also an Ecumenical Canon of Christ Church Oxford