In the last week before Christmas Day, the Christian Liturgy uses a series of ancient invocations, called the O Antiphons, which date from the fifth Century. These beautiful statements reflect deep longings in the human psyche – looking for wisdom, or the key, or the source – and in the liturgy are focused on the immanent coming of Christ. They reflect deep longings, comforting, calming and focusing these universal human needs. Today’s antiphon is addressed by the person who feels weak and overwhelmed, who looks for strength, and recalls the theme of God intervening in history, appearing to Moses and leading him out of slavery in Egypt. He then shows a way towards happiness in his law. The ancient metaphor of “an arm outstretched” is a way of talking about strength and protection.
Texts such as these work on a number of levels and can be applied easily to the inner longings of the human spirit. Each day, we too need to draw on many sources of strength, both internal and external. Sometimes we are faced with unfamiliar territory or challenges which daunt us at first sight. Or we may need to leave behind those places in our lives where we have been held captive. We can see the word “Egypt” as not just the ancient land where the Hebrews were slaves: the Hebrew word Mitzraim means “a narrow place.” So “going out from Egypt” can mean going from a narrow place, a place where we are stuck, to a wider place, a place where we are free. So often we get trapped in “narrow places”, stuck in situations or in our limited views of our own capabilities. We default easily to a sense of ourselves as weak or defective. At times of change we need to keep our focus on words and ideas that give us strength, that link us to our natural goodness and fearless nature. The themes at this time of the year remind us to keep our eyes fixed in hope on the light that appears in the darkness, to see where we are trapped and to let go of what is dead in our lives.
O Adonai, and Leader of the house of Israel,
You appeared to Moses in the burning bush,
and gave him the Law on Sinai:
come and save us with an outstretched arm.
