![]() ![]() My problem is not trying to say something new that I have not said previously. ![]() When I was a student in the seminary, the spiritual director told us that it is difficult to preach on the great holy days because we have spoken so often about their meaning that it is difficult to say something new. No matter how secular our society becomes and no matter how secular it tempts us to become, when Christmas arrives everyone has a special opportunity to be renewed, to be born again into the great mystery of God’s love. It provides us an opportunity to remind ourselves what matters most in our lives. I think it is a special blessing that Christians celebrate Christmas every year. The powerful image that the poem conveys to me is that the entire physical world opens its arms to welcome the Savior! I love some of the images in the hymn: the heavens starting to whisper, the veil concealing God’s presence being lifted, earth awaking from slumber to hear the stirring Christ’s presence, our hearts like the soil beneath the frost softening to welcome Christ’s arrival. Might it have been the Holy Spirit? Could it have been a moment of a special grace? Of course I cannot prove the involvement of the Holy Spirit, but I am not ruling out the possibility that my experience was due to the Holy Spirit’s presence. What made the lyrics so special to me? I cannot be certain. I have no idea what the experience of the hymn was for members of the congregation or what effect my Christmas homily might have had on Christmas morning. Shortly after Mass, I decided to make the hymn the center of my homily on Christmas. I had never done anything like that previously in the close to 40 years that I had been celebrating Sunday Eucharist in the parish. Then I read them some of the lyrics that I thought were especially beautiful and suggested that we could meditate on those words for the rest of the day. The following are the words to the hymn:Īfter I had heard the words to the hymn, I called to the members of the congregation who were still leaving the church and asked them to stop for just a moment. I don’t recall ever having a similar experience with a hymn at a Eucharist. ![]() I was literally stunned by the beauty of the lyrics. Because of the Incarnation, even the physical world can become sacramental. The title of the hymn, which I had never previously heard, was “Now the Heavens Start to Whisper.” The theme of the hymn was that even the physical world was preparing to welcome Christ. I had not looked at the recessional hymn before starting Mass, so when the leader of the song began to lead us in singing the recessional hymn, this was the first time I had looked at the lyrics. At the parish where I have been celebrating the Sunday Eucharist for approximately 40 years, the hymns that are to be sung during the liturgy are printed in the bulletin. I had a strange but wonderful experience at the end of the Eucharistic Celebration on the Fourth Sunday of Advent. ![]()
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