The Loneliest Night of the Year

As I was coming to work this morning, I was looking at the last full moon of the year; "Twas in the moon of wintertime" so the refrain goes from one of the oldest hymns written by a new comer priest inspired by his interaction with turtle island (what we call Canada), and probably his attempts to convert or the conversion of Indigenous people to the Christian faith. Or, maybe by his conversion to Indigenous faith. Or, was it the conversation to faith in God and the ability of the gospel to be received in this land of the mighty Gitchi Manitou.

The moon of Wintertime, the loneliest night of the year. I was thinking about my father, who is in a hospital room, not waiting to heal, but waiting because he is old now and his life is slowly leaving his body. And as I thought about him, I was sad; the loneliest night of the year.  I will push the feeling of sadness out of my mind soon, but I will linger on them just for a bit. Thinking about waiting and reading the gospel of the day, Luke 7:19-23. Two people ask Jesus, "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?" A question from two people sent by John the baptizer, who was in prison, "are you the one..?" Waiting for the one who is to come - by those who had power, but unable to help a sick servant, by a widow whose son had died unexpectedly; by those who had diseases, battling personal demons and all forms of the malady of the human condition - the sadness and the loneliness -waiting- the loneliest night of the year - waiting for the one who is to come.

"Twas in the moon of winter-time

When all the birds had fled,

That mighty Gitchi Manitou

Sent angel choirs instead…

"Jesus your King is born, Jesus is born, In excelsis gloria."

 (Original carol in Wyandot (Huron) circa 1642 by Jean de Brebeuf translated into English by Jesse Edgar Middleton 1926)