Oh flowers, oh flowers of the green pine,
Do you have any news of my beloved?
Oh God, and where is he?
Oh flowers, oh flowers of the green bough,
Do you have any news of my sweetheart?
Oh God, and where is he?
(from Cantigas de Amigo written by King D. Dinis of Portugal (1261-1325))
When Portugal was still part of the Kingdom of Leon the language that was spoken throughout the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula was Galician-Portuguese. A language originated in the artistic world, so that the first writings in this language were the songs about friends and love that the troubadours sang on their way to Santiago de Compostela from France.
"Absence makes the heart grow fonder" – What really characterized these songs of love and friendship was the fact that the lovers were far apart. Meetings were scarce and so, consumed by longing, the lovers lived their love platonically in their imagination and fantasy, fuelled by scarce news and letters. When after a long time, even years, the lovers finally meet, the joy was indescribable...
It was also this way, the love between God and man, man and God was for a long time. A platonic love that was nurtured by the messengers, the prophets whom God sent into the world. Until one day... "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son," (John 3:16).
In Jesus of Nazareth, born in Bethlehem, humanity and God, God, and humanity, finally meet. This encounter is symbolized in the parable of the wedding guests (Matthew 22:1-14); the wedding in which God marries his son to humanity. A wedding in which the destiny of humanity is united with the destiny of Christ, and vice versa.
Religion and revelation
"Long ago 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..." (Hebrews 1:1-2)
This phrase, from the letter to the Hebrews, can sum up all religions other than Christianity. Religion, from the Latin "religare", means relationship with God and with one’s neighbour. Ever since the human species has been conscious of itself, it has believed in the possible existence of a higher being, transcendent to everything and everyone because it is the creator of everything and everyone. At all times and in all places, man has sought to communicate with this divine being, God, to obtain his favour.
Cellphones, television and radio waves cross our space and we do not hear or see them, but we know that this is the case because when we have the right instruments, we can detect them. Similarly, God also sought to communicate with man and man with God; but this communication is not accessible to everyone either, it is necessary to have a special sensitivity to enter into this communication.
There have always been people with a special sensitivity to communicate with God. In the biblical tradition, the prophets were the designated catalysts for God’s plans for the people and the people’s petitions to God. Communication, however, was not without its difficulties; as in the field of telecommunications, there was a lot of "interference"; the prophet’s personality and character, his defects and prejudices, filtered the message and it did not reach the recipient as it had left the sender. On the other hand, very often these prophets understood that Heaven was closed and God was cloaked in silence.
"O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer; and by night, but find no rest" (Psalm 22:2). The people of Israel were never satisfied with this communication, which was so lacking, and lived in continual restlessness.
"'Come,' my heart says, 'seek his face!' Your face, Lord, do I seek" (Psalm 22:8). True love never gets used to absence.
Christianity is not a religion, because it does not consist of man’s effort or attempts to reach God; on the contrary, Christianity is a revelation because it is God who seeks man and reveals himself to man. As Jesus said in the gospel, "You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name" John 15:16.
Christmas the day of encounter
"All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him." Matthew 11:27
No matter how hard he tried, man could never reach God on his own; that is why, unlike all other religions, Christianity believes that, because is a Revelation, God did not send messages, he came himself.
At Christmas, we celebrate the great truth that God is not wrapped in silence, but in swaddling cloth and laid in a manger. With the birth of Jesus, God breaks the silence, eliminates the distance and undoes the inaccessibility. Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us, at our doorstep; our travelling companion in life as he was with the disciples on the road to Emmaus.
In Jesus, the true God and true man, the long-awaited meeting of humanity with God and God with humanity finally takes place, a full communication without interference without intermediaries. The love that was platonic for so long is now tangible.
Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC
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