As we approach another holiday season that is supposed to be filled with joy and wonder, too many families are experiencing hunger, fear, evictions, and loss of jobs. The simplicity of the Golden Rule shatters under the proliferation of breathtaking corporate greed. So many of us fail to believe in our own dignity and the dignity and worth of our brothers and sisters. Have we lost our way because we have forgotten who and Whose we are?
Here’s a fun study from Psychology Today revealing that, in general, Christians are more fearful than non-Christians. Not surprising, since hell, damnation, and a vengeful God can be popular sermon topics. But, lucky you, you can buy your way out of hell with a substantial donation commensurate with your sin. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-secular-life/202003/living-in-fear#:~:text=What%20did%20he%20find?,%5Bnon%2Dreligious%20person%5D. Does all this fill the pews and usher in holiday cheer? Does it set the stage for a wondrous Christmas? NO. It doesn’t. But it could be different if we truly believed in and embraced the essence of God’s love for us.
It is the very mystery of God, made manifest through the Incarnation, we were born into and made a part of, that gives life meaning and defines who we are. The autonomous and secular nature of the world negates the essence of our humanity, which is love, the very core of our nature. Saint Irenaeus said, “The glory of God is man fully alive.” Being fully alive is the quintessential manifestation of Divine Love. It can be nothing less.
Which begs the question: Why would God send his beloved Son here? Why bother when he knew full well what was going to happen? Every year, we remember Jesus’ birth, life, and death. And every year, we seem to forget his greatest commandment, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:30-31)
Saint Mother Theresa made God’s call to love quite simple, “People are unrealistic, illogical, and self-centered. Love them anyway.”
When we love so deeply, we can’t possibly keep it to ourselves; we must express it, and from that deepest place where it originated, we long for it to be shared. That is God being revealed in and through us. It is mystery declaring the essence of God – Love.
Gerald O’Collins tells us, “To be perfect, mutual love must be shared…it is the movement from self-love to mutual love, and then to shared love.”
Our sharing in the divine nature redefines our worldly understanding of self-love as Self, made in the image of God. That reality draws us to our Creator God and stirs a longing to grow in mutual love. As that Love grows within us, and we realize who and Whose we are, we are then called to act upon it.
As the Body of Christ, we are to share in its mission, the salvation of all humankind, as John Paul II reminds us, “Love is therefore the fundamental and innate vocation of every human being.” The inherent dignity and value of every human being flourishes within the very mystery of God, revealed through the Incarnation – the proof of God’s love.
How is God’s love proven? Not through rote prayers or hollow praise, but through “experience” – our experience of Love which in turn will empower us to be imitators of Christ. Our hearts are to be directed to the Father, whose sole purpose, as Jesus’ Pascal Mystery revealed, is to manifest his gratuitous love to us so that we can proclaim that love to a hurting world.
Now, get out there and love on that crotchety neighbor, that obstinate uncle, your mother-in-law. Don’t just hand the beggar on the corner a few coins – sit down next to him and speak to him as if he matters. Then see if your Christmas is a little brighter, even if you didn’t get that to-die-for gift on your wish list.
Merry Christmas!
PASSION, PURPOSE & POOPYHEADS 