The Light of the World

Radio 4's daily prayer and reflection with Father Dermot Preston.
Good morning.
A friend informed me that her grandson, Leo, was visiting and had told her that he was in the Nativity play at his nursery school. He said he was playing a leopard.
'Really, Leo,” she said, “Are you sure you're a leopard?'
He looked at her for a moment, pondering.
'Yes,’ he said, “a leopard, definitely. I'm in a field with other leopards and we see an Angel'.
A child is unfazed by leopards celebrating Christmas, so perhaps we could ask what, at first, might seem a silly question: ‘What did grown-up Jesus do at Christmas?’
Surprisingly we likely know exactly what the grown-up Jesus was doing in mid-December, in the year 29 AD. As an almost throwaway line, John’s Gospel tells us: “The festival of Hanukkah took place at that time in Jerusalem. It was winter and Jesus was in the Temple walking in the Portico of Solomon.” (Jn 10.23)
The Portico of Soloman was on the east-side on the then-Temple complex and it protected winter pilgrims from the biting east-wind which swept in from the Judean desert in mid-December, just at the time this feast was observed. Hanukkah is a Jewish celebration of cleansing & light; and tellingly, just before this incident, the Evangelist tells us that Jesus had opened the eyes of a blind man and had declared “I am the light of the world.”
Today is the first day of Hanukkah for the Jewish people. Their festival lights will be mingling with the Christian lights of Advent this coming week.
Lord, let people of all faiths seek the light of your truth with integrity, compassion and humility. Amen.