Lord, God of Life, how many times in the course of this year have we walked through reality as if on a thread above the abyss, with faith in a Promise heard in the hollow of our ears as the only support for our steps, while wars and injustices continue to turn our world upside down? How often, in the midst of threat, has an unsuspected space opened up, a space in which love, creation and relationships are still possible?
Your coming in our flesh, Lord, did not establish peace or justice on our earth. You have not eliminated evil, you have not protected us from any pain, but you have opened the way to another fullness. That of Tenderness that makes us love life even when we don’t understand it, even when the tragic or the absurd seem to take over.
For this look that comes to us through the face of Emmanuel and that reminds us that we are all inevitably promised to your Life, Father, we give you thanks, this evening and until the last day.