If only I were a man!

After leaving his family at the church for the Midnight Mass, a Canadian farmer returned home to escape from the approaching snowstorm. His wife's insistence that he attend the Mass with the family came to no avail. For him, the incarnation of God made no sense at all. As he dozed off in the warmth of the fireplace, he was startled awake by the sound of geese crashing against the door and windows.  Thrown off course by the storm from their migratory trajectory south, they were completely bewildered.

Moved with compassion, he went outside to open the gates of the large barn so the birds can seek shelter inside. But the birds did not come in. He started running, waving his arms, whistling, shouting and shooing to get them into the barn until the storm passed. However, the geese flew in circles not understanding what the open barn and the dramatic gestures of the desperate farmer meant (not even the breadcrumbs scattered towards the barn could convinced them to come in).

 Defeated in his attempt to save them, he sighed: "Ah, if only I were a goose! If only I could speak their language!" Hearing his own lament, he recalled the question he had asked his wife: "Why would God want to become a Man?" And, without meaning to, the answer suddenly struck him, "To save him!"... And that was Christmas.

"Religion" comes from the Latin word "religare", which means to relate, to establish a relationship. From the very beginning, man has always been religious and probably will always be. Knowing themselves to be precarious and needy, human beings have always sought favours from "gods". Thus, in all cultures, individuals have emerged who, considered to have a special sensitivity to relate to the divine, felt sent by God -- like the prophets in the Hebrew tradition.

These prophets never truly succeeded in establishing a bridge of communication between the divine and the human. This is because the Word of God, transmitted by them (men with their own personal characteristics living in a certain sociocultural context), ended up being influenced by many mediating variables (personality, prejudices, stereotypes, social standards), and the meaning of the original message was lost.

This continued to happen even after Christ. For example, when St. John mentioned the number of times the Risen Jesus appeared after his death, he did not consider the first apparition that was made to Mary Magdalene; similarly, St. Paul did not mention this apparition either and, on top of that, he made reference to another one that no evangelist mentions – the one made to Peter.

Throughout the history of humanity, God, despite his omnipotence, has found himself in the same situation of powerlessness as the farmer who could not communicate with the geese in order to save them; for this reason, in the fullness of time, He cried out, "Ah if only I were a man!" And God became Man and dwelt among us...

Christ, being both God and Man, is the true bridge that unites humanity and divinity, he is the meeting point, the full communication, without bias or influence. In his word, in his behaviour, in his works and in his life as a man, God has told us everything we need to know about himself and about what it means to be a human person.  Merry Christmas!

Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC