IV Mystery: Mary Gives Birth to Jesus, God With Us - Part II

Philip said to him, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father”?  John 14:8-9

Begotten not made, consubstantial with the Father
God has only one Son who, as the Creed says, is begotten not made. If the Creed were to speak about us, it would say that we are made, not begotten. (God) destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will… Ephesians 1:5

All men and women are creatures of God and through Jesus Christ, redeemed at the price of his blood, we are made adopted children of God. United by the same human nature, dignity is due to all human beings, without distinction of ethnicity, without exception period.

And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ – if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.  Romans 8: 17 – According to the Roman law which is fundamentally the law used throughout the world, the adopted child has the same rights to inheritance as the biological child.

Jesus calls God Father, but only within the inner circle of the apostles and never outside of it. What this means is that the divine fatherhood is available only to those who accept Jesus as son of God and as brother, our elder brother, for it is only through Christ, the only begotten son of God, that we are adopted children.

The Messianic Feast
Christmas is the feast that unites mankind with God; it is the feast that unites earth with heaven. The incarnation is a marriage between the Only Begotten Son of God and humanity, and Christmas is a wedding feast that celebrates this indivisible and everlasting union. A marriage is a union of two destinies into one destiny. At Christmas, God the Father marries his Son to Humanity, that is, he unites the nature of the second person of the Holy Trinity to Human Nature.

The union of two natures into one person took place in Mary’s womb. She is, with every right, the Mother of the child to be born, because she not only lent her womb but also contributed her genetic material. God, by the work and grace of the Holy Spirit, is the Father of both the second person of the Holy Trinity and the one incarnated in Jesus of Nazareth.

Jesus of Nazareth who was born in Bethlehem is the result of this union, this inseparable and indivisible union of the two natures: human and divine. God became the son of Man, the only title that Jesus gives himself, so that Man, who is a creature of God, might also become a child of God.

Jesus' time among us corresponds to the messianic banquet prophesied many centuries before by Isaiah 25, and declared by Jesus in one of his parables in Matthew 22:1-14. Because it is the time of the messianic banquet, it is a fact that Jesus' public life began with a wedding feast in Cana of Galilee and ended at the Eucharistic banquet on Holy Thursday in Jerusalem, in which He was the food. Between these two banquets, Jesus participated in many others with his disciples and many of his sayings were delivered in the context of a meal.

Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, ‘Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?’ And Jesus said to them, ‘The wedding guests cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.’  Matthew 9:14-15

Because it is the time of Jesus among us, the time of the messianic banquet, his disciples, that is, the bridegroom's friends, should not fast, but should celebrate. It is a time for feasting, a time of celebration, not a time for penitence or sadness.

In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. John 14:2-3

The days of fasting will come when the Bridegroom returns to the Father’s house, taking with Him our human nature redeemed in his person and by his person, sitting at the right hand of the Father.

And the Word became man and dwelt among us
After leaving his family at the Church for the Rooster Mass, a Canadian farmer returned home, fleeing from the incoming snowstorm. His wife’s insistence that he attend the Mass with the family had fallen on deaf ears. For him, the incarnation of God made no sense. As he slept in the warmth of the fireplace, he was startled by the clash of geese at the door and windows. Driven by the storm from their migratory trajectory to the South, they were completely disoriented and bewildered.

Moved with compassion, he opened the gates of the large barn and began to run, squawking, whistling, shouting and hooting for them to take shelter in the barn until the storm has passed. However, the geese flew in circles, without understanding the meaning of the open barn and the dramatic gestures of the desperate farmer (who had not even convinced them with the breadcrumbs scattered in the direction of the barn). 

Defeated in his attempt to save the poor creatures, he sighed, "Ah, if only I were a goose! If only I could speak their language!" Upon hearing his own lament, he recalled the question he had asked his wife: "Why would God want to become a man?" And, unintentionally, he muttered the answer: "To save him!" ... And it was Christmas.

There have always been people with special sensitivity to communicate with God. In biblical tradition, prophets were the catalysts of God's designs for the people and of the people's petitions to God. Communication, however, was not without difficulties: just as in the field of telecommunications, there were many "interference". The prophet's personality and character, defects and prejudices, filtered the message, which did not reach the recipient as it had left the sender. On the other hand, these prophets often understood that Heaven was closed and God was shrouded in silence.

These prophets never truly managed to establish a bridge of communication between the divine and the human. This is because the Word of God, being transmitted by them (men with their personal characteristics and inserted in a certain sociocultural context), ended up being influenced by many mediating variables (personality, prejudices, stereotypes, social patterns), thus losing the meaning of the original message. 

There is gold in the river sand, but not all river sand is gold. Hence, we need to sift through the sand to find the gold nuggets. The Word of God is also in the Bible, but not everything in the Bible is God's word. Since the Bible is the encounter of God as He is with Man, there is in the Bible much that is human, many anthropomorphisms, that is, examples of how to understand God in the way of man, even though in this same Bible it says, "my thoughts are not your thoughts, says the Lord" ... 

In sifting through the Bible to find the word of God, we have to identify the personality of the author of the book in question, his beliefs, prejudices, stereotypes, social patterns, etc. to find the Ipsissima Dei Verbum. 

Because of all this, it was necessary that God incarnates to speak directly to man without interference and, more than speaking, to demonstrate with his life and works how human beings should live in order to regain the likeness of God that was lost with Adam and Eve. 

Opportunity to regain the likeness of God
It was for this reason that the Word of God became Man so that Man might become Son of God. Saint Irenaeus of Lyon

Since Christianity is the religion with the most followers, and Christmas is the most popular public holiday in the Christian world, we can easily conclude that Christmas is the most celebrated holiday of all the holidays celebrated on this planet. It is undoubtedly the one that brings together more people worldwide, not just in the Western society.

Jesus of Nazareth is the way by which God comes to us to speak in our ears, to speak to our hearts on an equal footing, not from above to below, but from brother to brother, from man to man. The creator makes himself a creature to speak from within the human nature; to speak with authority, as the men of Jesus' time have noticed, because he spoke and he did, because he spoke and he fulfilled, because he spoke and things happened.

As truly man, Christ is our opportunity to regain the likeness we had with God before the sin of Adam and Eve. Whoever wants to be authentically and genuinely human measures himself to Christ, because He is the Way, the Truth and the Life, He is the model, the prototype, the paradigm of humanity. No one in the entire history of mankind has more humanity concentrated within himself than Jesus. 

John 15:16 – You did not choose me – As they say in theology, ours is not a religion, because it is not the effort that man makes to reach God, but rather it is a revelation, because it is God who first comes to us, and reveals himself to us. This is why Jesus can say to the apostle Philip, "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father". 

1 John 4:10 – In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Love is repaid with love, says the people; our love for God is a response to divine love, the only answer, for there is no other. Therefore, because the initiative comes from God, ours is not a religion but a revelation.

Jesus: the way by which men go to God
No one comes to the Father except through me.  John 14:6

If Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, the Son of God, He is the only way by which God has come to us. For this reason, there can be no other way by which man can go to God. It would make no sense for one to be the way by which God comes to us, and another to be the way by which man goes to God. All paths are round trips, so if God came to us through Christ, then through the same Christ we will go to God.

The purpose of God’s incarnation can be read in Jesus’ entrance into and exit from the city of Jericho. Jericho is the oldest city in the world, at 8 000 years old, and is also curiously the lowest city on earth, at 500 meters below sea level. Because of these two characteristics, in the Bible Jericho represents the world in sin. This is even suggested in the parable of the Good Samaritan; the man who was assaulted by thieves and evildoers, came down from Jerusalem to Jericho, that is, he went from grace down to sin.

Jesus enters Jericho, that is, he enters the sinful world and goes to stay in the house of Zacchaeus, that is, of a sinner. Jesus stayed in the sinful world, called sinners to himself, lived with them, ate with them, and treated them with the dignity of children of God (Luke 19:1-2). When he left Jericho, a great crowd followed him on the way up from sin to grace in Jerusalem (Mark 10:46-52). Thus the reason of the incarnation was fulfilled: God, through Christ, came into the world so that the world, by the same Christ, might come to God.

Conclusion: Through Christ God came to men, through Christ men go to God. Whoever lives in Christ, is authentically human like Christ, because He is the only reference and paradigm of humanity.

Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC

IV Mystery: Mary gives birth to Jesus, God with us - Part 1

O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer; and by night, but find no rest. (...) ‘Come,’ my heart says, ‘seek his face!’ Your face, Lord, do I seek.  Psalm 22:2; 27:8

Religion and Revelation
The people of Israel were never satisfied with this communication, so deficient, and lived in a continuous restlessness. Religion, from the Latin "religare", means relationship with God and with one’s neighbour. Ever since the human being gained self-awareness, he believed in the possible existence of a superior being, transcendent to everything and everyone, because He is the Creator of everything and everyone. At all times and in all places, man has sought to communicate with this superior being, God, in order to obtain his blessing.

Cell phone, television and radio waves cross our space and we don't hear or see them, but we know they exist because when we have the right instruments, we can capture these waves. In a similar way, God also sought to communicate with man, and man with God. But this communication is also not accessible to everyone, one needs to have a special sensitivity to enter into this communication.

‘Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God.’  John 3:17-18

Christianity is not a religion, because it does not represent only man's effort or attempt to reach God. On the contrary, Christianity is a revelation because it is God who seeks man and reveals Himself to him. As Jesus says 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)

At Christmas, we celebrate the great truth, that God is not wrapped in silence, but in cloths 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 side, a travelling companion throughout our lives, as he was with the disciples on the road to Emmaus.

Son of God versus last prophet
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, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds.  Hebrews 1:1-2

Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways, summarizes all religions; however, in relation to Christianity, this occupies only the Old Testament of the Bible. Unlike all other religions that talk about prophets sent by God, Christianity no longer presents a prophet, but God himself who comes to us, Emmanuel.

Islam accepts as valid the Jewish religious tradition described in the Old Testament which they also consider their own. Therefore, to the Muslims, Mohammed is the last of the prophets that God sent into the world, Jesus being the second last.

If mankind survives another 10,000 or 20,000 years, what sense does it make that the last prophet came in the year 524? The world and humanity have changed more since the year 524 than in all the millions of years before; why were the prophets sent with frequent succession prior to 524, and then after 524, they suddenly stopped coming and were no longer needed?

In the case of Christianity, even if humanity survives until the year 20,000, it still makes sense that the revelation took place in year zero. As the author of the letter to the Hebrews explains, "the one sent" is no longer a prophet, but God himself who came to live among us.

There is a qualitative leap here; prophets bring messages for a time, while the word of God is eternal for all times and all places, because God does not need to speak twice. On the other hand, Christ is not only a spoken word, he is a lived word and one lives only once.

What is the meaning of the last prophet then? Is it because Islam has a more refined doctrine and an ascending path where we have already reached the summit? But the peak shows a closer association to Christianity rather than Islam, with a much more humane and humanizing narrative, such as love of enemies. Islam in its practice and doctrine even resembles the Old Testament more than the New, when we think that Muslim women are still being stoned today when Christ was already against it in his day.

Islam is in itself violent by nature, because it is not about loving God who loved us first, it is not "love is repaid with love"; God in Islam is the Lord of the Old Testament who commands submission. As a matter of fact, Islam means submission, one submits to God, one does not love God who no longer calls us servants, but friends. In fact, the historical way Islam expanded was not through missionary work or catechesis, but by armed force and submission or by trade.

Christmas, feast of the Father
‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.’ John 3:16

Since the Church has reserved the Sunday after Pentecost to celebrate the feast of the Most Holy Trinity, the union and communion of the three divine persons, it is fitting that she should have a solemnity for each of the three divine persons. Seeing that Pentecost is clearly the celebration of God the Holy Spirit, I wanted to see in the other two, Easter and Christmas, the celebrations of the Father and the Son, but I ran into the problem that both Christmas and Easter seem to be celebrations of the Son, leaving the Father without His own feast day.

It doesn’t seem right that two feast days were allocated to the Son and none to the Father, so I thought which one to give to the Father and by what criteria; it could be Easter, because Jesus dies doing the will of the Father (Luke 22:42) or it could be Christmas, by the fact that Jesus himself says in his dialogue with Nicodemus: ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son…’ (John 3:16-21).

To solve this dilemma, I turned to grammar and what it tells me about active and passive voice. At Easter, it seems that Jesus is the one who directs the action when he says, “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord” (John 10:18). At Easter, Jesus is the main actor, no one has greater love than he who lays down his life for his friends (John 15:13). There is no doubt then that Easter is the feast of the Son, because He is the protagonist.

The same is no longer the case for Christmas, Jesus is not the protagonist of Christmas, because grammatically he is a passive person, Jesus is not giving birth, he is born. Because of this, I have never liked the formulation of the third Joyful mystery which in all languages says "we contemplate the birth of Jesus". As if Jesus had fallen from heaven by parachute or as if He himself had caused his own birth. This mystery should say: "In the third Joyful mystery, we contemplate Mary giving birth to Jesus".

Christmas has two great protagonists, one divine and the other human. God the Father is the divine protagonist and Mary is the human protagonist. The action begins in God the Father who sends his only begotten Son into the world. Although there is no order of importance between the Father and the Son, from a grammatical and human point of view, it is more important the one who sends than the one who is sent; the one who sends causes the action, the one who is sent suffers the action.

Mary, the human protagonist, is not passive, she is also active; she represents all mankind that says "Yes" to God's plan. A free "Yes" because it was said with much thought and without any coercion from God who proposed it; a "Yes" that, being freely given, could have been a "No". Just as important is the one who sends as the one who receives. If a King sends a messenger to another King, the latter is free to receive or not receive the sent messenger.

The Character of Santa Claus
"Jesus is the reason for the season" (Protestant churches' Christmas slogan)
Jesus is not the reason for the Christmas season, the Father is. On this feast, Jesus is born: the verbs that refer to Jesus in this season come in the passive voice. Christmas, as an encounter between God and humanity, has a human protagonist, a mother, Mary, who received Jesus in her womb and contributed for it with her genetic material; and it has a divine Father, God.  

In another time, I too used to criticize the importance that the civil society gives to the mythical figure of Santa Claus. Today, I understand that it is one of those cases of the "voice of the people, the voice of God". Santa Claus represents God the Father who sent his Son into the world. He is a venerable old man who does not hide his age or tries to look younger, and overflows with kindness by giving gifts to children, caressing them and sitting them on his lap. In everyone’s imagination, God the Father is always represented as an old man with white hair and beard. Santa Claus coincides with this collective imagery.

His suit is red like that of a bishop because, historically, Santa Claus is associated with Bishop Saint Nicholas, which is why he is called Santa Claus in English or just Santa. He lives in the North Pole, a place away from everything and everyone, in a white region, in a pure world that appeals to the collective imagery of how Heaven is conceptualized, God’s home.  

He visits us during the night, because it is said that nighttime is a time of salvation. He is never seen, but speaks through his works which are translated into the graces and gifts that we, as children and his children, ask of him. Being able to enter through windows or doors, he always enters through the chimney because he flies from place to place, he comes from above and enters through the only part of the house that is always open and on watch, signalling that we must always be in prayer, open to the Most High, looking upwards from where help comes to us.

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favours!’ (…) The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. Luke 2:13-14, 20

Conclusion: Christmas, because it is the feast of God the Father, was celebrated in Heaven by the angels saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest’, and on earth by the shepherds who returned from Bethlehem glorifying and praising God.

                                            Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC