{"id":57088,"date":"2017-12-25T23:21:13","date_gmt":"2017-12-25T23:21:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zenpundit.com\/?p=57088"},"modified":"2017-12-31T00:56:31","modified_gmt":"2017-12-31T00:56:31","slug":"christ-born-again-wishing-you-each-every-blessing-this-holy-tide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/?p=57088","title":{"rendered":"Christ born again, wishing you each & every blessing this holy tide"},"content":{"rendered":"

[ by Charles Cameron<\/strong> — wishing to avoid the excesses of piety and secularism, to get once more to the heart of the Christmas message, refreshed ]
\n.<\/p>\n

How shall we get past the tired commerical imagery of 80% off, the pious religiosity of religious hucksters, and cleanse our image of the Christ-Mass to seee him afresh?<\/p>\n

One way I have found is to travel abroad:<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nMughal Madonna and child attributed to Manohar or Basawan<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Seen with fresh eyes, the ancient image of the sacred, royal child and pure mother shines anew.<\/p>\n

Or take this Ethiopic image of the flight into Egypt — unusual to our eyes, yet utterly appropriate for the flight to Egypt to be represented to us by a Ethiopic artist..<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nEthiopic, flight into Egypt<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And how gently, with a finger’s touch, this angel from Autun cathedral wakes the three wise men (magi), here shown as three kings:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

**<\/p>\n

Ah, music!<\/p>\n

Perhaps JS Bach’s Christmas Oratorio BWV 248 can carry conviction where a statement of faith, constructed entirely in words and lacking the flourishes of trumpets, must always fail to push past our secular sensibilities into glory:<\/p>\n