In the Bleak Midwinter

On the third day of Christmas, my true love gave to me three French hens. Which was nice I guess, but as I introduced the Mademoiselles to the makeshift aviary now colonizing the reading corner of my den, (careful not to disturb the softly cooing couple hogging the loveseat and wondering how often one must water an indoor fruit tree), I began to worry: There are nine days left to Christmastide, and if this gift-giving algorithm holds, I may find myself in an Alfred Hitchcock film.As fun as it is to imagine the implications of a literal “Twelve Days of Christmas”, the song is also a very useful catechism tool. Whether it started that way or not, for many generations now believers have been pairing the numbered days of Christmas with foundational theological truths. Today being the third day of Christmas, we are taught to dwell on the inscrutable doctrine of the Trinity. How can we have one God who has three persons? I wish I remembered who it was that said that the divine mysteries are less difficult facts to be understood and more infinite wonders to be enjoyed. That rings true. Isn’t it more than enough for us to have true encounters with the one God, in whom we have a perfect Heavenly Father and His eternally begotten Son, and the Spirit who binds us to Him? I mean, I don’t even understand my wife...Another of those divine mysteries, which we will explore on the fifth day of Christmas, is that of the incarnation of Christ. Almighty God made flesh in a tiny babe. To help us revel in wonder, we’ll lean on the poetry of Ms. Christina Rossetti, whose “In the Bleak Midwinter” remains one of the most hauntingly resonant Christmas carols of the Church. It’s an embarrassment of riches, really, and I can’t wait to fly through it with you.