Reader Writes December 2022
The old King quietly left his palace, as he liked to do when troubled, and took himself along
one of the many garden terraces overlooking the forest below. These barons, they were
enough to test the patience of any king; greedy, mendacious, entirely self-serving etc. He’ll
certainly put a stop to their plans for his forests. But for now there was a more eternal and
important spiritual question on his heart; it was the Christmas season, and he wanted to
think through what the coming of the Christ child really meant. Why this wondrous event?
An eagle called above on great feather-fingered wings drifting towards the mountain
meadows. It was decided; he would go on down and find Father Mattei.
Taking himself straight to the scriptorium, sure enough there was his old studious friend
apparently deeply engrossed in a novel of a language he couldn’t identify; Russian
perhaps? After warm greetings and the coffee pot was nestled in the embers of the fire,
the old King presented his seasonal thicket of uncertainties. Now Father Mattei, please tell
me in simple terms and in our own sweet language, what is the significance of the coming
of the Christ child, born of a young girl in an ordinary stable in far off Bethlehem?
Settled by the fire, cradling strong coffee in their old hands, Father Mattei stared into the
friendly embers and suggested that the letter to the Hebrews was a good pasture to hunt
for the answer. God is the Great Rescuer; we go wrong all the time and fall far short of his
just requirements, but despite knowing well the darkness in our hearts, he loves us and is
determined to rescue us. Thank you Lord, said the King. Yes, God sent his child to our
world to become a sacrifice, punished in our place for eternal salvation. But that’s not all,
said the old monk.
God himself, in the form of a man, came into this world and shared our pain, our shame,
the abject failures deep in our hearts. He was tempted like us, and suffered like us,
therefore he is able to help those who are being tempted. God has been there before us;
the woman bullied and pilloried, the leper cast out from community, the beggar ignored in
his filth. Leaning back, Father Mattei, quoting (and translating?) heaven knows what, was
clearly deeply moved. In the heart’s wild excess and among the wisps of straw, what in the
end binds us to one another? The cross? No. the child’s birthcord, our common humanity.
The King returned home up the many steps, taking in diversions and enjoying the peace of
a sharply cold winter evening. Owls made blood-curdling calls below; yes, it’s a fallen
world all right. No need to ask the mice. But God walks with us and has shared our world;
he has redeemed us, and he calls us to walk with him through it. We are bound together,
and we must share our burdens and rejoice together in God’s rescue of us. The deep bass
call of an eagle-owl echoed off a mountain cliff; God often speaks to us in delightful ways
thought the King. His troubles had slipped away. Then he heard the clear sweet voice of
his wife singing up above him; what a lucky man he was!
Robert MacCurrach