Identity

Birth to breath,
Breath to voice,
Voice to Word,
Word to Love,
Love to Act,
Act to You.
Identity, birth anew.

How shall I pen
What wells forth,
From Creator to Creation,
The love that dwells within
Since my breath had begun?

Vision after vision, the Image–
The Gift that is His alone.
How can I not be impassioned–
To share with you as One?

He calls me; He tugs at me
To make anew a home,
To share with you a love,
One, in Him, that will never be undone.

This is what drives a man mad:
Not the image of the passing,
Of the imperfect lusts, the passing,
No, the vision, the beauty of the everlasting.

It sets in him a fire of devotion,
Turns his heart end over end in pure commotion,
Demands of him to turn over all,
To hold fast to what is true and what is beautiful.

The man loses not himself in this battle,
This battle of self and of love.
No, the man gains all
In this race of sacrificial love.

He conquers not; he fails not
In this battle to love.
He loses not his identity,
To love, with the Creator, the One.

It is in this very identity
That this man was once born,
But it is also the identity that, with the Other,
He shall pass to daughter and to son.

This is the identity that the Father gives the Son,
That I must do and I must follow,
To love You–only You–
With a heart made for One.

Such a Night to Believe

"For even they who were scornful on that day of small beginnings shall rejoice to see the select stone in the hands of Zerubbabel. These seven facets are the eyes of the LORD that range over the whole earth." - Zechariah 4:10

Christmas, of all the seasons and times of the year, proves to be a time of both the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. It was such at the time of the birth of Jesus and since that very time.

The beauty inspired by that singular birth has driven so many to the Greater Good, to our God of peace. How could such beauty be born in the meekest of means? How can such a night of darkness bear to birth such a glorious morn of Light?

It is the very same that brings forth new life in the face of the redeeming act in the Resurrection. This is why Mass is celebrated on Christmas Eve, on the cusp of Christmas Day—Christ's Mass. It is birth anew.

Birth is brought forth from the Virgin Mother and Breath gives way to Voice, and the Voice does not go unheard. His Voice takes form to give us the Word that has always been and always will be. And this Word is Love. This is why this Night of all nights goodwill among men is shown. Love has been born.

However, Love cannot be separated from the Act—or the lack thereof. The Act must be there. The Perfect Yes—such as the "Yes" of the Blessed Virgin Mother, Our Mother, Mary did at the Annunciation. Without the Annunciation there would be no Nativity and without the Nativity, no Calvary. And without Calvary there would be no "You." Our very life would be without order and without Love, Love Divine.

We must reach this Identity and pass this Identity to one another, to share this Identity to one and all but most especially in our vocation and station in life.

How can a heart not be impassioned this Night above all other nights? How can a heart and soul not believe in the Promise of God the Father for His children, lost and abandoned to a world lost in oppression, pain, and sorrow?

This is where the choruses raising this evening find voice to sing of this Holy Night, to sing of the Night when Christ was born.

This is the Night of our Identity, our birth anew. Rejoice! May glad tidings and goodwill be sought and found this day, but not just this day but every—that we may live our Identity each and every day—to be Love, to mirror God who is Love.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.
All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be.
What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." - John 1:1-5