The Disguised

(...) And in that golden parlour
Of noble and serious ambience
To hear sing the fado
There is always a disguised
Mysterious character

But one night there was someone
Who said to him, by way of talk,
"Disguised, note well
That today there will be no one
Disguised in this room!"

And before the admiration of all
Discovered that the disguised
Was the King of Portugal
There was regal hand kissing
And then he sang the fado.

(lyrics by Joao Ferreira Rosa)

Life inside a golden cage
The curious story which this classic fado alludes to may never have happened in Portugal, but there is nothing stopping it from happening, and happening again, in any time or place. This is because it highlights an inescapable truth; it is said that the powerful in general -- kings, emperors, presidents or popes -- are the best-informed people, and in a way, this is true, but the opposite can also happen.

The information that reaches them is neither first-hand, second-hand nor third-hand; often the news has passed through several people and as "who tells a tale adds a detail", by the time it reaches the recipient, it is overly filtered and/or laden with connotations and interpretations that place it further and further from the truth and reality. Sometimes the information may not even reach the recipient because it was withheld by someone who, according to his criteria, deemed it irrelevant.

Often the concentric circles of people that surround a ruler, or someone important, are veritable walls that prevent him from having a clear and objective view of the world around him, and the problems he is called to solve. As an anecdote: someone used to define pontifical secrecy as what everyone knows except the pope.  

Frequently those who are considered powerful live inside a golden cage and have less freedom than the rest of us... One of those who traditionally lives inside a Golden Cage, with very limited freedom of movement, is the Pope. Contrary to this fact and in line with the Disguised, the Swiss Guard, in charge of Pope Francis’ security, confirms that he has "already ventured out at night, dressed like a regular priest, to meet with the homeless of Rome".

Mediators
God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. He is the reflection of God's glory and the exact imprint of God's very being. (Hebrews 1:1-3)

For a long time, "isolated" in heaven, God also had his circle of intermediators and messengers, who clouded God's messages to his people, with their own personality, prejudices and ideas. "Omnis traductor traditor" says a Latin proverb; a translator or interpreter is always a traitor, that's why God was unable to communicate fully with humanity.

At Christmas the invisible was made visible
The Bible tells us that God is spirit. Spirit is immaterial and therefore invisible and incommensurable to our senses. We are spatial-temporal beings, God lives in eternity, a Kingdom completely different from ours. We cannot see radio, television or cellphone waves, and we need suitable devices to capture them. Since God is spirit, only our spirit is prepared to capture him.

"Though he was in the form of God (...) emptied himself, (...) being found in human form" (Philippians 2:6-7). At a certain point in human history, God decided to strip off his divinity and dress up, or disguise himself, as a human being. "Tired" of sending messages, he decided to visit and live among us. From within our humanity, which he fully assumed, he showed us by his word, his behaviour and his deeds how man is and should live.

"He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him" (John 1:11). Jesus, God made man, was born in a manger in Bethlehem, grew up and was educated humbly in a village on the outskirt called Nazareth. He was trained as a carpenter, and was endowed with a nondescript physical appearance. According to our natural expectation, God should have come in glory and full of power, with thousands of angels flanking him on both sides. His voice should have sounded like a thunder. His face should have been brilliant like the sun.

This is why it was difficult for the people of that time to recognize him as God; they did not understand that God had to come in a humble way, to be our friend and our brother, to speak to us from within our human nature and condition. As we would naturally expect, one day he will come for the second time, in full glory as the King of kings, to judge and close the human history of which he is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.

Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC