January 3, 2022
Editor’s note: This reflection was originally published on Fr. Mark-David’s Facebook page.
They went home by another route.
One would think the journey
to Bethlehem had been enough,
searching the sky,
following a star
for God know how long
to God knows where.
Bethlehem was no tourist destination.
But after all of this
they are told, we are told,
that they must go home by another route.
Retracing their steps would not do.
The theme of life as a journey
is an old one.
We journey
through the morning of childhood,
the high noon of youth
the mid-day of adulthood
and the evening of old age.
We journey through weeks and weekends,
through holidays and festivals
and back to work again.
We journey
through times of joy and tragedy,
And drudgery in between.
We journey in health and sickness,
We journey in a world
through a pandemic
whose end we cannot foresee.
We journey alone
and in the company of our beloved.
We journey like the magi,
searching for something more,
searching for happiness,
searching for meaning,
searching for God.
Far from where they began,
The journey led them
To a most unlikely, unimpressive place,
Where the magi found solace
for their yearning
in the Christ child, a child born
as they had been born.
They found the Truth of Christmas:
In God’s sight, every human being
Is deserving of love and mercy.
Throughout the journey of life
every human being needs mercy and love.
Mercy and love is a gift
given to us by others,
a gift, we give to others.
You think their journey
would be over,
That this epiphany was enough,
But it was not to be.
Angels told them they had to go home
by another route,
they could not be the same.
Who they had found,
who had found them,
changes everything.
They had to be the revelation they found.
Which forces me to ask myself,
has this Christmas changed me?
Is anything different about me?
When the tree is taken down,
the thank you notes are posted,
will anything be different about me?
When the manger is packed away
and I get on with my life,
tomorrow morning,
will I travel by another route,
or travel the well-traveled paths
I have always trod?
I am not talking about New Year’s resolutions:
those last about, well, till Tuesday.
I am speaking of your spirit and mine.
Christmas reveals to us, like the Magi
That we journey through life
Knowing no matter where we go
and what happens to us,
God is present, at our side
in this dangerous world of ours.
God calling together East and West,
young and old,
people of every race,
language and way of life.
This God sends us on our journey
through the new year
Laden with gifts of love and mercy
To give to and receive from
others, all others.
These gifts the star-the hope
lighting our path in a difficult
and often harsh world.
Has Christmas changed the way
I see myself, see you, see God?
Changed me enough
To go on a journey
Where I cannot take much
And will lose much along the way?
A journey where all I carry is
The gold of Love,
the incense of desire
and the myrrh of suffering
gifts with which I give hope
to others-all others.
I don’t know.
Like the magi, I will have to decide.
I hope I do.
I hope that my heart is not like Herod’s heart,
impervious to the good news
that God is in life, in my life, in all life.
I hope this star
that will lead me, will lead us,
into this new year by another route.
Amen.