Sunday sounds: Second Advent Sunday - Peace
This week, we light the purple Bethlehem Candle, as we remember Mary and Joseph's journey, and as we are getting one week closer to Christmas. Its message is about Peace: something so difficult to find, both in the world and on this tiny speck of the Internet, that the easiest solution is to look for it within ourselves.
Having already encountered renewed Hope on our own journey to Bethlehem, we take a moment to open our hearts and minds:
'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.' (King James' Bible -Luke, 2:14).
This is my favorite Greek Christmas carol and it comes from Thrace, way up in the North. Unlike what I wrote first (mislead by the fact the choir is from Edessa, in Central Macedonia), this is probably the most mysterious of all the Greek provinces. It is one of the only places in the country you will find mosques and Orthodox churches standing side by side, because it is home to the scant Turk minority. It is also one of the refugees' gateways to the West, crossing the Evros river that separates Greece from Turkey. But above anything else, as the Easternmost point of continental Greece, it is probably the closest to Byzantium: and it shows, if you listen closely enough.
Χριστός γιννιέται, χαρά στουν κόσμου means Christ is born, joy to the world and it would have been perhaps more suitable for next week. But I don't really care, because the deep sense of serenity it manages to convey, across any language barriers, is just about what is needed.
From East to West, this time, may Peace be with you and yours, on this day! We are already midway - and every day brings us closer and closer to the Light.
