Happy Winter Solstice and Merry Christmas to those in the Father’s Rights’ Movement

Saturday, December 22, 2007

To everyone

Today is the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, and three days from now Christians will be celebrating the nativity of Jesus Christ. It is fiting that Christmas—or “Christ Mass,” was placed during the Roman pagan festival of the Invincible Sun, or “Deus Sol Invictus.” The Romans held a festival on December 25 called Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, “the birthday of the unconquered sun.” (Most people accept this as the origin of December 25^th, but this has been questioned.)(Others [including the present Pope] view the day as arising nine months after Christ was immaculately conceived.)

Regardless, Christians view the coming of Jesus Christ, as bringing a light into the universe where there once was darkness. Christians believe that even though Jesus Christ existed before the beginings of the universe, through his birth to the Virgin Mary just over 2000 years ago in a pasturel setting in Bethlehem, a new light came into the world—yet it was a light that was always there, a light that knows no end, a light that knows no beginning. Christ’s came to us in human form so that the spiritual life of the invincible sun would be with us.

As Ralph Waldo Emerson said in his work “Nature,” speaking on the subject of language, that “Nature is the symbol of spirit.” “We are thus assisted by natural objects in the expression of particular meanings,” said he. “Have mountains, and waves, and skies, no significance but what we consciously give them, when we employ them as emblems of our thoughts?” “[T]he memorable words of history, and the proverbs of nations, consist usually of a natural fact, selected as a picture or parable of a moral truth.”

The winter solstice is pregnant with metaphor and meaning. It is not by any stretch of the imagination just important for those involved in the fathers’ rights movement, but it has a special meaning for us regarding the hope for tomorrow. We can look to Nature and distill universal truths. “[E]very object rightly seen, unlocks a new faculty of the soul. That which was unconscious truth, becomes, when interpreted and defined in an object, a part of the domain of knowledge, — a new weapon in the magazine of power.”

The Sermon that follows was written by Maximus of Turin. Maximus was Bishop of Turin in 398—a city in Northern Italy—the Rome Empire was to “fall” in 476, yet so powerful was the Roman name that and the barbarians that conquered merely considered themselves the extension of the Roman Empire. As Pople Benedict said, “The city [of Turin] was threatened by scattered groups of barbarians who, having entered through the eastern passes, were advancing toward the western Alps.” It is this historical context which this sermon should be read—it is truly a time when a darkness appeared to be looming over the world. In the end, the “barbarians” that took over were Christians themselves. That the Christian religion did not fall with the mighty Roman empire that brought it into transcdence is a monument to its virility.

Those in the father’s rights movement can take solace in the sermon. The hour is now dark and the powers of evil reign supreme. But the sun does come. Let the seeds of justice come to fathers. Happy Winter Solstice and Merry New Year

Rinaldo Del Gallo, III, Esq.

413-445-6789

berkshirefatherhood.com

For those of you in the Southern Hemphisphere, and you are out there on this list in New Zealand and Australia, now its our turn!)

Maximus of Turin (?-c.420), Bishop Sermon CC 61a; PL 57, 233

Answering God’s call to repent from the depths of our hearts

Even without my needing to speak to you about it, my brethren, the season is enough to tell us that the anniversary of the Nativity of Christ our Lord draws near. Creation itself is expressing the imminence of an event that will restore everything for the better. It, too, looks forward to seeing its darkness illumined by a ray of sun even more bright than usual. This expectancy in creation of a renewal of its annual cycle invites us to wait for the birth of the new sun that is Christ, who lights up the darkness of our sins. The sun of justice (Mal 3,20), which is about to appear in all its strength, will cast out the darkness of our sins, already too long in continuance. He will not allow the course of our life to be stifled by the shadows of existence; he wants to expand it by his power. So, just as creation sheds its light more widely during this time of solstice, let us also manifest our justice. Just as the light of this day is the common good of both rich and poor, let our gifts be extended to travellers and to the poor without reserve. At this time of the year the world holds back the duration of darkness; so let us, too, withdraw the shadows of our avarice… May all the ice in our hearts melt away; may the seeds of justice grow, warmed by the Saviour’s rays.

Therefore, brethren, let us prepare ourselves to welcome the day of the Lord’s birth by clothing ourselves in garments of shining whiteness. I am referring to those that clothe the soul, not the body. The garment that clothes our body is only a tunic of no value. But it is the body, that precious object, which clothes the soul. The former is woven by human hands; the latter is the work of the hands of God. This is why we must attend with the greatest care to preserving God’s work from any spot… Let us purify our consciences from all their stains before the Nativity of the Lord. Let us come before him, not clothed in silk, but rather in works of merit… Let us begin, then, by decorating our interior sanctuary.