Listening

Continuing on from yesterday’s carol we now turn to a line from Away in a manger, where we find the words, “No crying he makes.” I think that this line is a little bit of poetic licence, for naturally, all babies make their needs known when they require nourishment. 

My guess is that the point of this line in “Away in the Manger” is that even though the circumstances of Jesus’ birth were less than ideal that Jesus and His family were at peace. But to say that the baby Jesus didn’t cry to is to stretch the limits of poetic license to the breaking point. In the first place, the biblical text nowhere says this and in the second place, how realistic is it to think that Jesus wouldn’t cry? Babies cry. Jesus was a baby. Jesus would have cried and done all of the other things that babies do in the real world.

We need silence in our lives. We even desire it. But when we enter into silence we encounter a lot of inner noises, often so disturbing that a busy and distracting life seems preferable to a time of silence. Two disturbing “noises” present themselves quickly in our silence: the noise of lust and the noise of anger. Lust reveals our many unsatisfied needs, anger our many unresolved relationships. But lust and anger are very hard to face.

“What are we to do?” Asks Henri Nouwen. “Jesus says, “Go and learn the meaning of the words: Mercy is what pleases me, not sacrifice” (Matthew 9:13). Sacrifice here means “offering up,” “cutting out,” “burning away,” or “killing.” We shouldn’t do that with our lust and our anger. It simply won’t work. But we can be merciful toward our own noisy selves and turn these enemies into friends.”

Well might we pray:-

Be near me, Lord Jesus, I ask Thee to stay
Close by me forever, and love me, I pray.
Bless all the dear children in Thy tender care,
And fit us for heaven to live with Thee there.