Pray always for the learned, the oblique, the delicate
Uncle Gerry emailed this excerpt from Evelyn Waugh’s Helena today and it gave me pause.
It’s strange – America begins the “Christmas” season November 1st at this point and Christmas trees are stripped of decoration and set out by the curb Dec. 26th in so many cases. My mother is always horrified – “Christmas starts on the 25th, idiots!!” And so, usually, by the time Epiphany rolls around (not that 90% of the population is aware of or celebrates Epiphany), people have already moved on to New Year’s resolutions, planning what they’ll do for the long MLK weekend, etc.
I live in East Harlem where “Dia De Los Reyes” seems an even bigger deal than Christmas. There is, in fact, a parade across 106th St. every year on Ephiphany with live animals, floats, music and people dressed up as the three kings. I miss the days when I still worked at Cristo Rey and could join my co-workers for the festivities on the street outside the school.
And yet, with all of the religious symbolism of the gold, frankincense and myhr and the kings traveling from far and near to visit this poor child born in a stable, its meaning will be very different after reading this passage. I can only hope that my gifts, even when not needed, will be “accepted and put carefully by” because they are brought with love.
“Like me,” she said to them, “you were late in coming. The shepherds were here long before; even the cattle. They had joined the chorus of angels before you were on your way. For you the primordial discipline of the heavens was relaxed and a new defiant light blazed among the disconcerted stars.
“How laboriously you came, taking sights and calculations, where the shepherds had run barefoot! How odd you looked on the road, attended by what outlandish liveries, laden with such preposterous gifts!
“You came at length to the final stage of your pilgrimage and the great star stood still above you. What did you do? You stopped to call on King Herod. Deadly exchange of compliments in which there began that unended war of mobs and magistrates against the innocent!
“Yet you came, and were not turned away. You too found room at the manger. Your gifts were not needed, but they were accepted and put carefully by, for they were brought with love. In that new order of charity that had just come to life there was room for you too. You were not lower in the eyes of the holy family than the ox or the ass.
“You are my especial patrons,” said Helena, “and patrons of all late-comers, of all who have had a tedious journey to make to the truth, of all who are confused with knowledge and speculation, of all who through politeness make themselves partners in guilt, of all who stand in danger by reason of their talents…
“Pray for the great, lest they perish utterly…For His sake who did not reject your curious gifts, pray always for the learned, the oblique, the delicate. Let them not be quite forgotten at the Throne of God when the simple come into their kingdom.”
