麻豆社

Good morning
Midnight Mass, celebrated tonight in cathedrals and churches in many parts of the world, has its own unique atmosphere. People emerge from the darkness of the night into a candlelit world brimming with promise and hope. The service has an edge of expectancy.

And not only for those who attend. For a priest to preside tonight is a highlight of the year. Lighting the Christmas candle within the advent wreath; placing the infant child in the crib; consecrating the bread and wine before sharing Christmas blessings amongst many who don鈥檛 often attend is an astonishing privilege. People come for many different reasons.

My favourite carol It Came Upon the Midnight Clear is based on a poem written in 1849 by the Massachusetts Minister Edmund Sears. It beautifully captures the atmosphere of Christmas Eve. The angels are singing over the fields in which the shepherds unwittingly become part of tonight鈥檚 drama as, just for a moment, a noisy world lies in 鈥渟olemn stillness鈥�.

More than ever, in our own time, there is so much noise 鈥� messages and opinion drowning out our daily existence. And whilst, to a certain extent, much of the noise might be entertaining and useful, it鈥檚 clear to me that the human spirit also needs respite and sanctuary from it.

I was talking about this in recent days to Geoffrey, a member of my congregation who is a physicist. He explained to me, and I found this fascinating, the concept of 鈥渟ignal processing鈥� which he defined as the art of extracting signals from noise. 鈥淵ou could ask, at this time,鈥� he went on, 鈥渉ow do we extract the signal of what Christmas truly means from the noise swirling all around us?鈥� If solemn stillness is indeed the answer, then the Book of Proverbs is in no doubt: 鈥淓ven a fool is considered wise when he keeps silence, discerning when he seals his lips.鈥� [17.28]

In other words, true wisdom, and this is reflected in many other books of the bible, is the adoption of a strategy of silence to be heard above the noise. This may be counter-cultural but it works if we consciously determine to find ways to tune in to the signal of silence and to block out much of the frivolous noise around us.

After another challenging year, at Midnight Mass tonight the advice of my favourite carol is unequivocal: 鈥淥 hush the noise, ye men of strife, and hear the angels sing.鈥�

Anticipating the unique (for it is!) solemn silence of Christmas Eve, may I wish you all a happy Christmas.

Show less