Evening star., 1928-12-24
BY FATHER GIULIO BRISINO, O. F
OF the Church of the Nativity.
pafh

| Bethlehem. Palestine.
BETHLEHEM, December 22.-The
sun appears exactly at 6 o'clock in
Bethlehem on Christmas morning One
| moment night still envelops hills and
fields. but the next, with amazing sud-
denneSs, the world is bathed in sil-
=! yer glow.
This silver-suffusion again lasts but
| the barest fraction of a minute. 1t is
as If even the sun feels that upon
| striding across the blue mountains or
Moab and catching sight of the little
town where the Lord of the World was
born it is proper to adorn itself with
an even more gorgeous color.
And this is then also what takes
place. Silver is followed by a deep
scarlet. For moment 1t seems that
the universe is in flames. This is one
of the most miraculous sights of Bethle-
| hem, and I have been told by men and
women from the other ends OF the
world that they had journeyed across
oceans and mountains just to be present
| at a Christmas sunrise in this little
| town.
1t would not be difficult for person
with some imagination to reconstruct
+, the original setting of the fields around
Bethlehem where the shepherds tended
| their flock on that memorable night
| 1000 years ago, and the little town
where st. Joseph and the Virgin had
taken refuge in grotto; with this ex-
ception, however, that the hills, now
so barren and bare, were then covered
with forests.
Existed in Middle Ages.
Those forests still existed in the mid
| die ages, as the records of the crusades
| indicate. Since that time Islam has
| passed over Bethlehem and the Holy
Land, and the passing of Islam is like
the teeth of the ugly Arab goats. After
! those animals have gone through a
meadow not a blade of grass remains.
But apart from that the grottoes are
still here adjoining the fields OF Boaz
| and Ruth, and in Winter nights they
are Lit up with camp fires. Bedouins
sleep around the fires and f1ocks of
sheep and goats find shelter from the
December cold. Two thousand years
| ago they were Jewish shepherds who
kept their vigil here. There are again
Jewish shepherds in Palestine at this
time, but they do not live near Bethle-
hem They and their colonies are to
be found farther north, in Galilee. The
ancient landmarks have, after all, not
changed a great deal. 1t was in the
|
up some Of the ears missed by the
mowers. Boaz saw the comely maiden
and fell in love with her. From theil
union issued Obed, who was the an.
cestor Of the Hebrew poet-King David
and David was an ancestor of botf
Joseph and the Virgin
If it ever could be said of any towr
that 1t was town of stone anc
severity, surely Bethlehem answers Il
that description. Not only are the
dice-like houses drawn up out of stone
and monotonouSly gray is the entir
stretch Of the valley until it gradual,
r dissolves in the Desert of Judea, tina
in turn does not end until it reache
the Dead Sea.
Deep Concern for Place.
1t seems only natural that we o
Bethlehem, who have consecrated ou
lives to the guardianship of the cradl
of the Lord, should also have a deel
concern for the ideal of peace ant
human brotherhood that was usheret
into the world by the choirS of HEAVIER
on the night when Christ was borr
And. to be sure. very often we stroll
of an evening through these selfsam
, fields where the shepherds heard tn
angels hymn, and ask ourselves tn
, question: Is peace any nearer? Ha
the. world at last understood the mes
sage Of love and justice that He brough
{ from heaven with His birth?
= have been allotted long life. Soo
I shall have reached the century mari
e When boy, in my native Verona, peo
;, pie still talked with awe of Napoleon
r Everybody in town nearly had seen hir
{; as he passed through italy with hi
S armies. Those are my earliest recollec
= tions, and from that time onward,
o seems to me, the history of Europe an
of the world has been more war tina
n peace.
t France has gone through four revo
lutions in my time. Thrones were sc
up that have been swept away. King
: doms that existed in my youth hav
been forgotten. Everywhere the bar
ners Of the people have come throug
= the thunderstorms of war and ur
t heaval. Great meteors flashed In til
heavens. think Of Lincoln. GaribalS