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Close the door, light the light
Doubtless, it being that time of the year again, many of you will be pre-empting the real Christmass by sitting uncomfortably on little seats in hot school halls, watching the antics of mixed infants, clad in dressing gowns and wearing tea towels on their heads, re-enacting the Nativity. This is sweet, and their childish simplicity adds a touch of nostalgia to the season, but it doesn’t come without a health warning. Nothing comes without a health warning nowadays. Before the performance the head-teacher will point vaguely in the direction of the fire exits and give explicit instructions as to what to do should the alarm ring. This is required by law.
Every Christmass Eve I am filled with trepidation. No fire exits for us. Churches, if they are ancient, were built with little thought about health and safety. Up and down the land there will be eager crowds of young people, and old ones with shaky hands, clutching a lighted candle in one hand and a carol sheet in the other, blasting out “Away in a manger” while the Vicar stands with the carbon dioxide extinguisher behind his back. The little Lord Jesus, asleep in the hay, is blissfully unaware that he is lying in extremely inflammable bedding, surrounded by potential pyromaniacs with naked flames.
I still have nightmares about the time when, at the Midnight Mass, my wife alerted me to the fact that one of the decorative candles had melted down and was about to ignite the holly on the window shelf. The congregation were not alerted to the conflagration that was about to engulf them. The Swedish Church is even more careless about the dangers of fire. On the Feast of St. Lucy, on 13th December, they have a young girl dancing round the building with lighted candles on her head. We shall not be doing that, with or without fire blankets.
All this preoccupation with hand held illumination is symbolic of the fact that, as we light the Advent candles one by one, we are leaving the darkness of this wicked world and witnessing to the coming of the one true light. It is a far better idea than the garish illuminations in the streets and gardens outside and, unlike them, adds very little to global warming.
May God bless you all, Fr. Allan
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