RITE AND REASON:IN 1871 the poet Swinburne wrote "Glory to man in the highest! For man is the master of things." It was the conclusion to his poem Hymn of Man.
In his own time Swinburne’s frantic atheism made him look like a powerfully original thinker, but for all his genius as a poet, it’s clear he was deeply and uncritically influenced by the spirit of his time. At least as far as his atheism went, he didn’t so much say new things as shout old things a bit louder.
Some things never change!
Today, it’s hard to sell the idea that man is “the master of things”. Well before the current crises, the marvellous progress of the 19th and 20th centuries had shown a sinister side. The human genius that gave us penicillin and the airplane also gave us the Zyklon B gas of Auschwitz. Democracy turned in on itself to put Hitler in charge of Germany. The private car – for all the freedoms it has brought – has driven us down a cul-de-sac of congestion and pollution.
Today, Swinburne’s words can be recited only with sarcasm. In our little country, we’re a long way from glory. The mighty have fallen, and have dragged the lowly with them. Optimism has yielded to cynicism. And here we are, on the threshold of Christmas, the season of cheer and goodwill.
Little wonder if, for many of us, Christmas is no more than a moment’s reprieve; not so much a sunrise as the striking of a match in the darkness; a couple of days of escapism and indulgence – and who could be blamed for that?
Happily, believers do not have to choose between deriding Christmas as irrelevant or embracing it as a momentary consolation. Christmas is not so much an opportunity to escape reality as a chance to understand it – or, better, a chance to see how God understands it.
As a matter of historical fact, the birth of Christ happened at a time of great political and social upheaval. This tells believers that God does not wait for things to settle down before getting involved. If we have a sense that we must put things to rights before turning to God, Christmas says the opposite.
There was no shortage of political goings-on at the first Christmas. The backdrop for the story is a census being conducted by the Roman authorities, and a primary aim of that census was the calculation of tax liability. Resentment of the long reach of the state’s revenue officers is no modern invention!
Then there is King Herod who, historically, was part of a political dynasty that had milked people dry, and he was bent on staying in power. Then there is the fact that Christmas is not about the arrival of a committee, a focus group, a board, an organisation, a hierarchy or a panel of experts. It’s about the birth of a baby.
Did God share something of our mistrust of organisations? Perhaps.
He certainly shared our abhorrence for coercion, and wanted us to respond freely to his invitation. And so he did not send force, or put on a display so dazzlingly convincing that it would override our freedom to choose. Our faith is not a quick fix. But Christmas can offer us the reassurance that God will not be overcome by chaos, sadness, or cynicism. We might even dare say, “Glory to God in the highest, and peace to his people on earth.”
Fr Chris Hayden is a priest of the diocese of Ferns, and is serving as spiritual director at the Irish College in Rome