Mary visited me in my dreams last night. Yes, THAT Mary (hey, I was raised Catholic after all!).
Anyway, it seems that she wanted to clear something up about that whole "Silent Night" thing. Turns out, the night was not so silent.
"Jesus screamed his little head off" she informed me.
"Really?" I asked. "But he's, you know..."
"God?"
"Yeah, God."
"Well, how would you feel about the rather abrupt shift from being in heaven to living on earth?"
"Umm, well..."
"And how else was he supposed to let us know that he was uncomfortable? Or hungry? Or just wanted to be held?"
"Alright, alright, I get it," I demured. "But somehow it just doesn't seem so...holy...to think of the night that way."
Mary shook her head at me. "Your problem is that you too easily attribute holiness to feelings or images that are comforting. Didn't your boys cry when they were born?"
"All the time," I agreed.
"And did that make them, or make their births, any less holy?"
"Well, umm, no, I guess not."
"Their cries are opportunities for us to give them comfort, for relationship, for connection. They are as filled with holiness as any other moment, if you can just get past they distress they create in you."
"Yeah, alright, Mary" I offered. "But you gotta admit, 'Screaming Night, Holy Night' just doesn't have the same ring to it. It sounds like one of those bad horror movies that they put out on Christmas."
And Mary laughed.
4 comments:
for real? you dreamed this? good stuff... esp as i just birthed a baby known to cry.
Ah, my friend, your comment goes to the nature of dreams.
I did have a dream with Mary in it, but it was fragments, with only brief bits of dialogue. So I had to put a bit more structure around it to describe the dream here.
I remember that in the dream, Mary was a teenager, that she was insistent about how that night was NOT silent, about how we shouldn't confuse comfort with holiness, etc.
I've often wondered about that part of Jesus' life on which the Bible is silent. What kind of kid was he like growing up? Did he ever get in trouble with his mom and dad? Did he ever break anything by accident? Basically, if he lived his life without sin, that means he was always perfect, right? Imagine being the younger (half-) brother of that kid! Did James ever beat up Jesus, being sick of always being compared to him? It's something to ponder...
Steve this is fantastic. Thank you!
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