The Work of Christmas after Epiphany
“When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock,
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among brothers [and sisters],
To make music in the heart.”—Howard Thurman, The Mood of Christmas & Other Celebrations From InwardOutward/ Church of the Saviour Washington D.C. inwardoutward.org.
Carrying the love that came down at Christmas with us for the rest of the year is now our calling. Thurman calls it the work of Christmas. I need something to help me remember this.
I have a Christmas tree pin I will keep in a dish with other jewelry to notice as I prepare for the day. I may even wear the pin if I have difficulty carrying Christmas love with me during the day. Joyce Dalton sent me a picture of a Christmas pin she uses to remember the love of Christmas.
Anthony de Mello in Sadhana, A Way to God, Christian Exercises in Eastern Form, gives us other suggestions in “Exercise 18: The Joyful Mysteries of Your Life.” He tells us to keep a memory book of times we felt loved or experienced the Christ child within us.
De Mello tells us to return to these times and relive the scene, as Ignatius Loyola would have us do. They both suggest we can experience the scene even more vividly in our memory. We could not enjoy it as much at the time for many reasons. Memories of Christmas love are significant for this exercise. We may have negative experiences at Christmas. We can work on these later with other de Mello exercises (“Exercise 24:Healing of Hurtful Memories”).
Reliving a loving memory can increase our capacity for love and joy. It can overcome our unconscious, instinctive resistance to happiness and love. As we go deeper into the memory, de Mello calls us to look for the presence of the love of the Christ child in the scene. This memory meditation becomes a way to recognize the love of God right beside us at all times.
The first picture is of Zoe and Mary Anne, who made a surprise visit at the Epiphany service in 2023. I don’t have a picture, but I will carry a beautiful memory of all my family going with me this year to Epiphany on one of the coldest nights of the year. It was my first time back at church after an illness. We filled up a whole back row in the church with love and thanksgiving.
