Over the White Chalk Hills

One night there went out over the stillness of an evening breeze, out over the white chalk hills of Bethlehem, a cry, a gentle cry. The sea did not hear the cry, for the sea was filled with its own voice. The earth did not hear the cry, for the earth slept. The great men of the earth did not hear the cry, for they could not understand how a Child could be greater than a man. The kings of the earth did not hear the cry, for they could not fathom how a King could be born in a stable.

There were only two classes of men who heard the cry that night: Shepherds and Wise Men. Shepherds: Those who know they know nothing. Wise Men: Those who know they do not know everything. Shepherds: Poor simple men who knew only how to tend their flocks; who perhaps could not tell who was the Governor of Judea; who perhaps did not know a single line of Virgil, though there was not a Roman who could not quote from him. On the other hand, there were the Wise Men: not Kings, but teachers of Kings; men who knew how to read the stars and tell the story of their movements; men who were constantly bent on discovery.

Both of these heard the cry. The Shepherds found their Shepherd, and the Wise Men discovered Wisdom. And the Shepherd and the Wisdom was a Babe in a crib – Archbishop Fulton Sheen

May you be blessed this Christmas,

David Stearman