December 16, 2012
Dear Friends,
We will gather together for our Badaliya Prayer on Sunday, December 16, 2012
from 3:00 pm to 4:30 pm at St. Pauls Church in Cambridge, in the small chapel
located in the Parish Center. Please join us in person or in spirit as we encourage
Inter-faith relations and pray together for peace and reconciliation in the
Middle East and especially in the Holy Land.
We have a wonderful opportunity for our December gathering to enter into the
Christian understanding of the four week Advent Season and explore together
the meaning in Islam of the Birth of Jesus and the presentation of the the Virgin
Mary as they are revealed in the Qur'an and in the Christian scriptures. Louis
Massignon uniquely envisioned the Virgin Mary as the bridge among all three
Abrahamic traditions. There is much to think about and bring into our prayer
together.
In our Catholic Christian liturgies we hear many readings from the Hebrew and
Christian scriptures during this season of waiting with hope and expectation
for the coming of the Christ child, the image of God's abundant and all
merciful love in our tradition. In the first week of Advent we hear from the
book of Isaiah that the "mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established
as the highest of the mountains," that "all the nations shall flow
to it." And we hear, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord.....that
He may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths." We are told
that the word of the Lord will come forth from Jerusalem and that the Lord will
be "the judge between the nations, and shall decide for many peoples; and
they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning
hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn
war anymore."
To begin our prayer together with these images of peace and hope for the future
also leads us to the other message of Advent for Christians which is the expectation
of the second coming of Jesus. Pondering the meaning of these images forms the
basis for our prayer and reflections during this season and helps us to experience
Christmas in new and inspiring ways each year.There are frightening images in
the book of Revelations in the Christian scriptures that precede the second
coming and then there is the strikimg images of new life.
"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first
earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new
Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for
her husband; and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling
of God is with men. He will dwell with them and they shall be his people, and
he himself will be with them; he will wipe away every tear from their eyes,
and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain
any more, for the former things have passed away." (Revelations 21:1-4)
Images of the young Jewish maiden Mary hearing the message of the angel of God
permeate this season of Advent. Massignon experienced Mary's "Yes" to God's
will and her willingness to bring the Holy child into the world despite her
youth and her fear as the epitome of our call as Christians. Submission to the
will of God in our lives, waiting with hope and patience to give birth to Love,
to new life in our world, and being ever grateful for the Gift.
The Qur'an adds more dimensions to Mary's "Yes" and to Jesus
her son. Let us stop and take time to savour the texts and contemplate the meaning
in our lives today. May our constant prayer for Peace and reconciliation in
the Middle East and the Holy Land, the city of Jerusalem, and in Syria be steeped
in the images of "swords being beaten into plowshares" and Mary's
"Yes" to God.
Peace to you.
Dorothy