“…. and the soul felt its worth…"

“…. and the soul felt its worth…”[i]

I find this line from the French carol translated into English as ‘O Holy Night’ deeply moving.  I am reminded of Jesus’ words in Matthew 10: 30-31 – ‘Yet not a single sparrow falls to the ground with your Father knowing it…..so do not be afraid of anything.  You are worth more than many sparrows’.  Such tenderness, such reassurance.

Time and time again the Scriptures remind us of how precious each person is to God.  Not in some abstract, theoretical way as a unit of value, but precious as a new born child is precious, as a treasured friend is precious, as a lover is precious.  The Holy One under the name of Divine Wisdom says ‘I found delight to be with the children of humankind’ [ii]

God keeps reminding us of our preciousness because it is just too much for us to take in.  However the more we allow this deep identity we have to change us the more we will know each person, each part of creation is sister and brother

In silence as we allow our own gaze of love rest on the crib we begin to know what Dante called ‘the love that moves the sun and other stars’[iii]  Little wonder that mystics understood Incarnation as the marriage of Divinity to humanity so close is our life in God.

St. Francis of Assisi loved the feast of Jesus’ birth and he always celebrated it with tender exuberance because ‘the Lord of glory became our brother’ and everything, absolutely everything is now sister and brother.  Again, this is not as a theory but as a living fact, a way of living.  The crib of Greccio grew out of this passionate love; he wanted everyone to understand the love that impelled God who became poor for us.

St. Francis frequently prayed, ‘Who are you Lord, and who am I’.  Over and over again he would pray these words which evoked tears of sorrow for his failures in responding to Love, he would weep because ‘Love is not loved’.  Then he would break into joy that could not be contained in himself and he would stutter with joy, he would dance with joy in the knowledge that Love keeps on loving, that Love is relentless in tenderness and forgiveness.

So, gazing at this baby, in the knowledge of the grown man who taught, healed, died and rose, we become aware, even if dimly, of how and how much God loves us and all creation.  Not abstractly but from within but flesh of our flesh.  God enfleshed in Jesus is God-with-us most truly, irrevocably and for all eternity.

In the end words fail, only the heart can begin to savour the mystery of this Love ‘and the soul felt its worth…’

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[i] Oh holy night!
The stars are brightly shining
It is the night of the dear Saviour’s birth!
Long lay the world in sin and error pining
Till he appear'd and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn!

[ii] Prov. 8:22-31

[iii] Paradiso Canto XXXIII