-
December 23, 2019O Emmanuel, our king and lawgiver, hope of the nations and their Savior: come! Save us, O Lord our God!
O Emmanuel
O come, O come, and be our God-with-us
O long-sought With-ness for a world without,
O secret seed, O hidden spring of light.
Come to us Wisdom, come unspoken Name
Come Root, and Key, and King, and holy Flame,
O quickened little wick so tightly curled,
Be folded with us into time and place,
Unfold for us the mystery of grace
And make a womb of all this wounded world.
O heart of heaven beating in the earth,
O tiny hope within our hopelessness
Come to be born, to bear us to our birth,
To touch a dying world with new-made hands
And make these rags of time our swaddling bands.
Poem: Malcolm Guite; Image: Adam Boulter
Jesus is our Emmanuel, our God who chose to inhabit our humanity, to be heard and seen with our eyes, to be looked upon and touched with our hands. Let us know ourselves desired, awaited, hoped for, even as we desire, await and hope for him, and so live impelled by the energy of grace. Let us know ourselves accompanied by his presence in every circumstance, and so become signs of his abiding presence to all. Let us know ourselves brought to birth by his birth, and so, saved from our cynicism, learn to hear and see, look upon and touch our world with uncontaminated joy. May we hear within the call to “turn and become like children” (Mt 18:3) and so, in simplicity and peace, inhabit the kingdom here and now.
