Almost every year, during the Advent Christmas season, I spend some time thinking of Christmas past and how the past may help us celebrate the meaning of this season in the present and in the days to come. The other day, I sat in the silence of my study rereading my Christmas sermons of yesteryear. Each reading took me back to that particular Christmas with a tremendous sense of crispness and clarity. And as I sat there thinking and feeling . . . I could not help wondering if all those words really made any difference to the people who heard them.

The themes and variations we celebrate during these days of the year seem to point in the same direction — let our light shine in the darkness. The words of Dickens in A Tale of Two Cities, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” characterize these moments we celebrate at the end of each year.

A look at the world reveals how grievously we are split into fragmentary and conflicting individuals and groups.