This piano song is based on Luke 2:8-14
In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!” (NRSV)
REFLECTION: The word that best expresses what the shepherds felt is wonder. Isn’t that what we all want at Christmas. So many people want to recreate the wonder they felt as kids at Christmas. Isn’t that what the movie “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” all about. The goal was to create the Griswold Family Christmas. The movie teaches us that whenever we attempt to recover or recreate the wonder we experienced as kids in the past, it generally ends in failure. Perhaps, the cause of that failure is that the wonder we experienced as kids was more focused on what was the presents at the foot of the Christmas tree and a belief in a myth about an rotund elf and his reindeers delivering those gifts.
My parents always had as the main focus under the tree, not the presents, but the manger scene. The stable in which Jesus was born, Mary, Joseph, shepherds, sheep, oxen, camels and the Magi dominated the scene under the Christmas tree. We always saw first the Christmas creche, then we saw the presents.
Perhaps the shepherds in the scripture passage demonstrate for us the wonder for which most of us seek at Christmas. In the middle of the night, watching over their flocks, the heavens were filled with angelic glory, and the shepherds were struck with awe and wonder at the message of the angels.
This evening (I am writing this in the wee hours of Christmas morning) after getting home from Mass, I sat at the dining room table, lit a candle and began contemplative prayer. In a room lit only by the light of the Christmas tree behind me, I relaxed in my chair and focused on the light of the candle I lit on the table. Slowly breathing and using the psalm passage, “Be still and know that I am God”, I focused on the light of the lit candle. The flame danced on the wick, and as I continued to focus my gaze on that flame, I widened my gaze through my peripheral vision. Around the table I perceived my deceased family, dad and mom, my sister, Mary Ruth, my brother, Bill, my mother-in-law, Rosemary, my cousin Cheryl and our Great Pyrs, Floyd and Henri, sitting around the table and beholding the wonder and presence of God in the dancing light of the flame. As quickly as it came, my family faded away in the darkened room and I was again alone with the flame of the lit candle. I experienced a feeling of wonder, love and connectedness to my family members on the other side of life.
As you listen to this song, listen for the wonder in the song. There is no outstanding melody in the song. The song was composed through the experience of the shepherds, who found in their mundane experience of watching over their sheep, like they had so many nights before, the wonder and glory of God. You will hear in the music the place in which the shepherds behold and hear the message of the angels. This song was presented as a Christmas gift for Helen Kerber, accompanist and pianist for the Guitar Group at St Hubert Catholic Church in Chanhassen.
