Isaiah 40:1-6, 9-11 / 2 Peter 3:8-14 / Mark 1:1-8
It is around this time of the year that we hear a particular type of music. It is a type of music that is so peculiar that we hear it only at this time of the year, and yet it is so easily identifiable.
Obviously, we are talking about Christmas music, which usually can be heard as early as mid-October.
It can be anything as pop as “Jingle Bells” to as sacred as “O come let us adore Him”.
Year in and year out, we hear that Christmas music and we are familiar with it and we will sing along with it.
At times it may get a bit overplayed but we still get along with it because it gives us the mood for the season.
The music is somehow “imprinted” into us.
This year, with all that is happening, the festive mood is rather subdued and toned down.
The Orchard Road light up was almost like a non-event, and the lights and decorations are less fanciful and less lavish.
Anyway, the Christmas decorations this year are generally much lesser and maybe even the Christmas music is softer.
But for us there is a void that needs to be filled.
Although the Christmas feeling is rather toned down and seems lesser, but maybe lesser can be better for us.
At least the festive commercialization of Christmas is lesser and the reason for the season gets clearer.
And maybe because the Christmas music is less and softer, we feel that something is missing.
And indeed, there is something missing. There are no practices for the Christmas carols because the choirs have gone silent. And there is also no public carolling.
But we want to hear the Christmas music. At least we hope that the music can lift us up from the gloom.
We want to hear that music, because it is imprinted in our hearts. Christmas is going to look or sound strange without those Christmas carols.
Our consolation is to turn to our CD collection and hear those carols.
It is not just to get into the mood. We are beginning to realize that those Christmas carols give us hope, that the yearly cycle of life and love is renewed.
There is a voice in those Christmas carols that tells us who God is and who we are to Him.
In the 1st reading, the prophet Isaiah was the voice of God to the people as he says: Console my people, console them, says your God. Speak to the heart of Jerusalem and call to her.
In the gospel, it was John the Baptist who was the voice of God to the people, a voice that cries out in the wilderness to prepare a way for the Lord and to make His paths straight.
But for us, where or who is the voice of God? Could it be in those Christmas carols that we hear year in and year out, but never really took notice?
But now that the Christmas carols are lesser and softer, we long to hear more and to hear it louder.
The voice of God that is “imprinted” in those Christmas carols is slowly awakening our hearts to listen.
We want to listen and to be consoled.
Over this period of time, we have learned to live with lesser, we have learned what is necessary, we have learned what is important.
We want to listen to the message of repentance and make our own paths straight for the Lord who is the Giver of life and love.
We want to listen and the season of Advent tells us that in order to listen, we have to be silent. Anyway, the word “listen” and the word “silent” have the same letters.
Oh yes, listening to Christmas carols will bring us some consolation. But it also calls for reflection.
And there’s one peculiar thing about music and more so about Christmas music.
The music is not in the notes, but in the silence between the notes. The great composer Mozart said that, and he certainly knows what he is talking about.
So, as we listen to those Christmas carols, let us also be silent.
May it bring us consolation from God, and may the paths of our hearts be straightened for Jesus to come and dwell in us.