Regardless of our faith tradition, this is a very special season of the year. It is, first and foremost, a family time, a time to gather and share love as intimate community, to give thanks for each other and to give and receive the most important of gifts, love. It is also a time to reflect upon the wider community as we reach out beyond ourselves, and share that love with those in our community who lack the basic necessities of life. We see this outpouring at this time and our heart are filled with joy. A light shines that is beyond candles.
One of the most important experiences we have at this time of year is our gatherings. We gather in our places of worship, our places of work and our communities. Many people gather with those who are facing poverty and homelessness. We have annual rituals that we encounter and shape: rituals of gift giving, meals, conversation, music and decoration. These rituals bring balance to our lives; they shape and form us into the people that we will become. Our rituals at any time of the year are important events for us, but especially in this season. A light shines that is beyond candles.
It is as if we are touched by something that it is beyond us. Is it the time of the year? Is it what we do or how we act? Is it the fact that we somehow become more attentive to our world, to others and even to ourselves? I believe that it is all of the above. What we are experiencing is beyond custom or tradition. We are brought into a deeper relationship with our humanity and with the divine. Regardless of our faith tradition, what we are experiencing in all of the above is spirituality and faith. A light shines that is beyond candles.
As we move into the celebration and rituals of the coming days, let us take time to remember that we are engaging in a spiritual experience. In doing so we are drawn closer to the divine and to one another. In the Christian tradition we use words such as Hope, Peace, Joy and Love. In a world that sometimes seems overwhelmed with darkness, we light candles to remind ourselves of the one who was born as a vulnerable baby - the child who was born into the poverty and margins of a violent society and who lived on the margins. Our master leads us in the way of nonviolence and into the community of the poor and marginalized. A light shines that is beyond candles.
This light is for all. This light brings Hope, Peace, Joy and Love.
A Love beyond time and space
A love beyond time and space,
Arching through eternity till now,
Shaping who I am and will be,
A love so deep and so profound.
Let me at this moment pause,
And be who love shall become,
A depth as I have yet to know,
A reality yet to come and live.
How may I in truth, embrace this love,
And then know fully as I am known,
A love that when received will shape,
A depth of life remade with grace.
Shall I know in me a courage,
To go on, and in this new life,
Discover that which was once lost,
And now again is to be found.
And then in a moment of eternity,
Feel truth as never before, in one,
Beyond time and space who gave,
A love for you and me in hope.
The Very Rev. Logan McMenamie is dean of Columbia and rector of Christ Church Cathedral, Victoria, and is bishop-elect for the Diocese of British Columbia. He is currently on a community sabbatical at the University of Victoria.
This article was published in the Faith Forum column of the prnt edition of the Times Colonist on Saturday, Dec 21 2013
You can read more articles from our interfaith blog, Spiritually Speaking HERE
