Patrick Comerford
On the seventh day of Christmas my true love sent to me … ‘seven swans a-swimming, six geese a-laying, five golden rings, four colly birds, three French hens, two turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree’.
We have come to the end of December, the end of the year, the end of 2024. This is New Year’s Eve, the seventh day of Christmas and the Hanukkah holiday continues today. Tomorrow is New Year’s Day.
Today, the Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship remembers John Wyclif (1384), an early, pre-Reformation reformer. Before today begins, before I even begin to look back on the past year or to start thinking of New Year’s resolutions, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:
1, today’s Gospel reading;
2, a short reflection;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;
4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.
John 1: 1-18 (NRSVA):
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. 15 (John testified to him and cried out, ‘This was he of whom I said, “He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me”.’) 16 From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.
Today’s Reflection:
‘To begin at the beginning’ – these are the opening lines of Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas (1954).
Or I might begin with words from Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol. In Chapter 12, the White Rabbit puts on his spectacles.
‘Where shall I begin, please your Majesty?’ he asked.
‘Begin at the beginning,’ the King said gravely, ‘and go on till you come to the end: then stop.’
TS Eliot’s ‘East Coker,’ the second of his Four Quartets, is set at the end of the year and opens:
In my beginning is my end.
It is December, and he goes on to say:
In my beginning is my end. Now the light falls
Across the open field, leaving the deep lane
Shuttered with branches, dark in the afternoon …
The opening words at the beginning of a play, a novel or a poem – or for that matter, a sermon – can be important for holding the reader’s or the listener’s attention and telling me what to expect. Begin as you mean to go on.
That is why I am surprised that Charles Dickens waits until the second sentence in David Copperfieldto say: ‘To begin my life with the beginning of my life …’
At the very end of the year, the Gospel reading at the Eucharist is the beginning of Saint John’s Gospel: ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God …’
The Christian interpretation of the song ‘The 12 Days of Christmas’ often sees the seven swans a-swimming on this day as figurative representations of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit or the seven virtues – Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety and Fear of the Lord – or they might even represent the seven churches of the Book of Revelation.
Sir Ninian Comper’s East Window in Southwark Cathedral shows Christ in Majesty in the centre light, with the Virgin Mary on the left and Saint John the Evangelist on the right. Christ sits enthroned above the world surrounded by seven doves, symbolising the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit: Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety and Fear of the Lord.
Christ is depicted in the window as a youthful figure, with a globe or the world below his feet bearing seven stars representing the seven churches in the Book of Revelation:
• Ephesus (Revelation 2: 1-7): known for toil and not patient endurance, and separating themselves from the wicked; admonished for having abandoned their first love (2: 4).
• Smyrna (Revelation 2: 8-11): admired for its affliction and poverty; about to suffer persecution (2: 10).
• Pergamum (Revelation 2: 12-17): living where ‘Satan’s throne is; needs to repent of allowing heretics to teach (2: 16).
• Thyatira (Revelation 2: 18-29): known for its love, faith, service, and patient endurance; tolerates the teachings of a beguiling and prophet who refuses to repent (2: 20).
• Sardis (Revelation 3: 1-6): admonished for being spiritually dead, despite its reputation; told to wake up and repent (3: 2-3).
• Philadelphia (Revelation 3: 7-13): known for its patient endurance and keeping God’s word (3: 10).
• Laodicea (Revelation 3: 14-22): is neither cold nor hot, but lukewarm, called on to be earnest and repent (3: 19).
The cardinal virtues comprise a set of four virtues recognised in Classical writings and are usually paired with the three theological virtues.
The cardinal virtues are the four principal moral virtues on which all other virtues hinge: prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. The three theological virtues are: faith, hope and love. Together, the cardinal virtues and the theological virtues comprise what are known as the seven virtues.
Plato is the first philosopher to discuss the cardinal virtues when he discusses them in the Republic. In his Rhetoric, Aristotle writes: ‘The forms of Virtue are justice, courage, temperance, magnificence, magnanimity, liberality, gentleness, prudence, wisdom.’ Cicero, like Plato, limits the list to four virtues.
Saint Ambrose, Saint Augustine of Hippo and Saint Thomas Aquinas adapted them, and Saint Ambrose was the first to use the term ‘cardinal virtues.’
The three Theological Virtues are: Faith, Hope and Love (see I Corinthians 13).
As we step into the New Year, we know that our world is a deeply uncertain place. Few of us predicted the events of the last few years – the return of Covid-19 in many new strains, a major land war in Europe, the conflicts on many fronts in the Middle East, the unresolved refugee crises, the rise of the far-right across Europe, the dreaded return of Donald Trump to a second term of office … Where shall I begin to imagine what lies ahead in 2025?
Once again, I call to mind TS Eliot in East Coker:
O dark dark dark. They all go into the dark …
I said to my soul, be still, and let the dark come upon you
Which shall be the darkness of God …
Yet, in this apocalyptic, visionary, poem, Eliot is neither all doom nor all gloom. He talks about Faith
… pointing to the agony
Of death and birth.
And he concludes East Coker:
Old men ought to be explorers
Here and there does not matter
We must be still and still moving
Into another intensity
For a further union, a deeper communion
Through the dark cold and empty desolation,
The wave cry, the wind cry, the vast waters
Of the petrel and the porpoise. In my end is my beginning.
‘On the Seventh Day of Christmas … seven swans-a-swimming’ on the Grand Canal at Harold’s Cross, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 31 December 2024):
The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘We Believe, We Belong: Nicene Creed’. This theme was introduced on Sunday by Dr Paulo Ueti, Theological Advisor and Regional Manager for Latin America and the Caribbean, USPG.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Tuesday 31 December 2024) invites us to pray:
As we prepare to celebrate the new year, may the truth of this Creed continue to inspire us, reminding us that you, O God, have revealed yourself fully in Christ, the Word made flesh. Empower us to live in the fullness of this revelation, proclaiming your love to the world.
The Collect:
Almighty God,
who wonderfully created us in your own image
and yet more wonderfully restored us
through your Son Jesus Christ:
grant that, as he came to share in our humanity,
so we may share the life of his divinity;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
Heavenly Father,
whose blessed Son shared at Nazareth the life of an earthly home:
help your Church to live as one family,
united in love and obedience,
and bring us all at last to our home in heaven;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Additional Collect:
God in Trinity,
eternal unity of perfect love:
gather the nations to be one family,
and draw us into your holy life
through the birth of Emmanuel,
our Lord Jesus Christ.
Collect on the Eve of the Naming and Circumcision of Jesus:
Almighty God,
whose blessed Son was circumcised
in obedience to the law for our sake
and given the Name that is above every name:
give us grace faithfully to bear his Name,
to worship him in the freedom of the Spirit,
and to proclaim him as the Saviour of the world;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Happy New Year
Yesterday’s Reflection
Continued Tomorrow
The Swan … once claimed to be the oldest pub in Lichfield, but has since been turned into a restaurant and apartments (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
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