1984 November/December issue Part 1

Crowned because He suffered

Each newsletter of 1984 has had a meditation on some of the why's of a Christian's suffering. Now it is nearly Christmas time. We don't usually think of suffering during this glad season if we can help it. "It's Jesus' birthday!" we tell tiny tots, and we set about making cookies and gifts and trimming the house and the tree. The very joyfulness of Christmas makes it especially hard for those who suffer. It seems incongruous that celebrations should go on as always when one's own roof has fallen in. Whatever the cause of the roofs collapse, Christmas can be far more than just a birthday. That birthday is the Feast of the Incarnation, of the Word made flesh-the happy morning when the myths about gods coming to earth in the form of men actually came true. This was "glorious news of great joy," not only for poor shepherds but for all people. Can it be that for someone two thousand years later who is nailed to a bed by pain, or who has lost something most precious, or been humiliated to the very dust? Perhaps it can if we think of what that glorious news entailed for the baby Himself. Richard Crashaw ( 1613-1649 described it far more beautifully than I can:

That the Great Angel-blinding Light should shrink His blaze to shine in a poor Shepherd's eye; That the unmeasured God so low should sinke, As Pris'ner in a few poor rags to lye; That from his Mother's Breast he milk should drinke, Who feeds with Nectar Heaven's faire family, That a vile Manger his low Bed should prove Who in a  Throne of stars thunders above; That He whom the Sun serves, should faintly peepe Through clouds of Infant Flesh! That He, the old Eternall Word should be a Child, and weepe; That He who made the fire, should fear the cold, That Heaven's high Majesty His Court should keepe In a clay cottage, by each blast control'd; That Glories self should serve our Griefs and feares, And free Eternity submit to years, Let our overwhelming wonder be.