THE Times They Are A-Changin’ – so sang Bob Dylan. The digital age, the rise of AI, the housing crisis, the Ukraine war, populism, Brexit, have all contributed to a sense that our ‘knowns’ are no longer ‘known’.
We open the paper expecting to be shocked at what we find. Ours is the first generation less well-off than their parents. The generation for whom a home, a steady job, marriage, a family, were that much less attainable than the generation before.
The things we were taught to seek are out of reach, and we no longer know what to reach for instead.
Read more: The story of ‘Silent Night’, a beloved Christmas carol born from faith and hope
So it helps to remind ourselves that God deliberately entered into our instability at Christmas. He voluntarily chose homelessness, conception out of wedlock, birth in a conquered nation, a refugee family.
Why? So he could bear our griefs for us and with us. So much of Jesus’ life was absorbing the pain of the world, and refusing to give back in kind.
Absorbing hatred, giving love. Removing, very literally, the sin from the world. How do you do that without letting the pain change you. He can show us how, but only if we open the door to him.
The Rev Rebecca Guildea,
Rector, Garrison Group of Parishes
Church of Ireland Diocese of Clogher
