Feast of Saint Stephen, first martyr
Although the Christmas season is 16 days this year (ending on January 9) many of us also enjoy the traditional Twelve Days of Christmas. Today is the first day —the partridge in a pear tree. Perhaps this image was inspired by Psalm 91:4: “He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge.”
Christ is symbolically presented as a mother partridge, a bird that would die to protect its young. The tree, of course, is the cross. One is reminded of the fruit trees in the Garden of Eden and the twelve life-bearing fruit trees in the Book of Revelation which brought health to the nations.
Fruit lingering on the pear tree would be joyful in the depths of winter—-giving life in the bleakest time and for the bleakest sins: fruit of the cross.
With much wisdom the church has given us the Feast of Stephen, first martyr, on December 26. Today the vesture of the church transforms abruptly from celebratory white to martyr’s blood red. In the midst of our joy, we must not forget that the child in the manger came to die:
I wonder as I wander out under the sky
That Jesus my Savior did come for to die
For poor on'ry people like you and like I
I wonder as I wander out under the sky. (John Jacob Niles)
Every year at this time I enjoy the inspiring poetry of Ann Weems in her book, Kneeling in Bethlehem. Here’s a poem most apt for the day after Christmas Day:
It is not over, this birthing.
There are always newer skies into which God can throw stars.
When we begin to think
that we can predict the Advent of God, that we can box the Christ
in a stable in Bethlehem, that’s just the time
that God will be born
in a place we can’t imagine and won’t believe.
Those who wait for God
watch with their hearts and not their eyes, listening,
always listening for angel words.
May this be said of us. Merry Christmas.
-Timothy J. Cronin