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"Those shepherds on the hillside
beheld the angel of the Lord
and they hearkened to his voice.
So what's so great about that?
That's hardly a major achievement,
particularly when you consider
that they had just been confronted by
quite some spectacular presentation.
If I ran into the heavenly host singing out in the fields at midnight
I'd pay attention too! Or would I?
An angel is simply a messenger,
a bearer of the Word of God;
and such messages, conceivably
are coming to us all the time,
but we do not take the time,
or have the courage to listen. . . .
God's word, then, comes to us
through 'things as they are'';
God's messengers, all those angels,
appear right at the heart of the everyday.
But unless we are listening,
unless we are prepared to drop, for a moment,
our busy work of preparations, celebration,
we will never hear the angels' song.
It's almost as if that angel
had already tried the innkeeper,
but he had not time even to hesitate;
already tried the soldiers
in the tavern down in Bethlehem,
but they were having too good a time;
and finally, as a last resort,
had come upon this pack of shepherds.
And these, at last, were folk who could hear--
could hear the best good news this world has ever heard.
They were far enough 'out of it,'
--don't you see? -- far enough removed
from what today we insist on calling 'reality'
-the fuss and bustle, jostle and hustle
of the marketplace-just far enough away
to enable them to hearken to eternity . . .
there still is time to find
a quiet space to listen,
listen for the angels;
time even to begin with those about us,
those we love and live with,
by giving them the finest gift we can give,
the gift of our attention, our respect, our time,
the gift of our attentive, listening ear.
In that listening-- who knows?--
we may even hear the angel's voices
singing 'Peace on earth'
as those shepherds did so long ago.
For those shepherds listened."
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