Stand
Still
“In
the Christmas story we read about the birth of Jesus and picture the infant
lying in a feeding trough, a star stopped in its movement over the scene of the
birth. The star stops. Time pauses. Liminality begins. In a sense we are in an
unusual time when we stop the ways of the world and give utopia a chance.”
Thomas
Moore (The Soul of Christmas, p,16, Franciscan Media, 2016)
Liminal
time is that brief interlude when we are neither here nor there—neither awake nor
asleep. It is neither night nor day, but dawn or dusk. Liminal time is the
threshold between the worlds. Jesus’ birth was such a moment. It marked a
radical shift from a religion based on fear of reprisal established through laws,
exclusivity, dietary restrictions, and hygiene rituals, and one based upon love,
forgiveness, inclusion, and acceptance. Like the star that stopped over the
scene, shepherds stood still and listened to the angel’s message.
Christmas is still an unusual time. We behave differently from any other time of year. We
give gifts, and not just one gift, but many. We listen to music that’s
different from any other and decorate our houses with wreaths and holly. I went
to some friends’ house over the weekend and saw at least fifteen big boxes of
Christmas decorations stacked up and ready for distribution. We hang sparkling lights and
shiny globes on green and silver trees, which doesn’t happen at any other time.
And we are, well, “merry” which, as Thomas Moore points out in his book, is a
word we only use in conjunction with Christmas. It is a brief span of magical
time in which we are different people—we embody the love and good will that the
season promises.
I would
dare to say that almost the whole of 2020 has been liminal time. We stopped
everything, went into our houses, and closed the doors. We refrained from our
usual routines of work and school and were forced to cover our faces. An unseen
hand went up in front of us, and we were told to stop, look, and listen. What
this terrible year has given us is an opportunity, and the freedom, to look
both within and without and judge for ourselves whether we want to go back to the
life we had before the pandemic. Was our ever-upward trajectory sustainable?
Was our commercialism and materialism benefiting us and our world? Are there
better ways to live that are sustainable for both humanity and the planet?
These are questions for
liminal time, and since Christmas falls at the end of the year, it provides
that threshold. We have a couple of weeks to pause and ponder what comes next.
We can waste our time and energy fretting over what is no more, or we can spend
it planning for the changes we want to see in our lives beginning January 1,
2021. I suggest we be like the natal star and the shepherds in Bethlehem. Let’s
stand still and listen for the angels’ song.
In the Spirit,
Jane
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