4th Sunday of Advent
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
OLR, NOLA
Thinking
abstractly is one of the ways we mark a child's cognitive maturity.
Adults think in terms of general principles and concepts all the
time. We use symbols, signs, metaphors, parables; concepts related to
numbers, motion, time, space, etc. We learn to think abstractly
partly b/c we need to think about the things of the world as they all
relate to us and one to another. But there's a problem with abstract
thinking when it comes to our lives in the Spirit. Ideas, concepts,
principles are easily manipulated, undermined, and changed precisely
b/c they often have no tangible referents in the physical world. The
names of concrete things – books, keys, glasses – these are all
meaningful b/c we can point to the thing and verify the name.
However, terms like love, freedom, sin, health, goodness – all of
these get matched and re-matched with their abstracted concepts, and
it is nearly impossible to decide what they really mean b/c we
can't check their meaning against concrete reality. This basic glitch
in our humanity can cause problems with our relationship with God.
Therefore, he sends His Son to us in the flesh, so that there can be
no mistaking His meaning: Christ is the Father's mercy given
flesh, blood, and bone.
We
know that ours is not an abstracted faith. We do not offer our praise
and thanksgiving to an idea or a concept. We don't pray to Peace or
Justice or Truth or Goodness. Christ did not die on the cross as a
symbol or a sign or a metaphor. I mean, who gets dressed on a Sunday,
goes to church, and worships Being Itself? Who here has prayed to
Existence or the Universe for a favor? As strange as it may sound,
over the centuries, including the last few decades, many Catholic
theologians, priests and bishops among them, have advocated exactly
that. That we stop thinking of God in human terms. That we cease
addressing God as “Father” and call Him “parent.” That we no
longer say “Son of Man” but “Child of Humanity.” That we
refer to the kingdom as “the community.” Besides being horribly
clumsy and just plain silly, these attempts at changing the language
are also attempts to redefine the truth of the faith. And it's
nothing new. Early heresies in the church denied the divinity of
Christ. Some denied his humanity. Still others taught that he was
just an illusion, not real at all. What they all had in common was
their denial of the apostolic faith, specifically, the Church's
teaching on the Incarnation of the Second Person of the Blessed
Trinity – Christ Jesus, who's birth – who's birth – we
celebrate next Sunday!
St.
Matthew couldn't make the point any clearer, so he quotes the
prophet, Isaiah, this evening, “Behold,
the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him
Emmanuel,
which means “'God is with us.'” Emmanuel. God is with us. Here
with us. Right here among us. As a man. As a divine person with both
a divine nature and a human nature. Like us in every way except sin.
Concepts do not weep. Ideas do not eat flame-broiled fish. Abstract
nouns do not die covered in blood on a cross. Emmanuel,
God-is-with-us, was flesh and blood and bone so that we might have a
saving friendship with a man, a real person. So that our eternal
lives will not be left in the ever-shifting definitions of culture or
popular opinion or corrupted power. We eat real bread and drink real
wine. We light real candles with real fire. We come together shoulder
to shoulder and hear real music and sing real hymns. Our worship is
real, concrete, and makes use of the ordinary things of the ordinary
world. And by the invocation of the Holy Spirit all of these, all of
us are taken up and made into a holy sacrifice for the salvation of
the world. This is the Father's mercy made manifest.
God-is-with-us.
Emmanuel. Christ Jesus. Both God and man. Born in the flesh and risen
in the flesh and set to return again in the flesh. We wait for him
during Advent b/c flesh and bone needs time to come together. To
gestate. To grow and take full form. If Christ were merely a notion,
an idea, then there would be no need for us to wait. Ideas are easy
to conjure up. We could all stay at home, synchronize our clocks for
6.00pm, and just think about Jesus for an hour or so. We could think
about Peace and Joy and Happiness. No need to get out in this messy
weather. But our Father wants real communion for us in real time.
This is why we celebrate His son's birth into the world. To reset our
faith in Him. To remember our hope from Him. And to reinforce our
love for Him. Joseph welcomes the pregnant Mary into his home b/c he
knows that she carries the living Word of the Father. We too carry
the living Word into the world. We're not always welcomed. But we
have said Yes to the Spirit. And there is nothing else for us to do
but to show the world God's mercy and love. In thought, word, and
deed. . .to be the body and blood of Christ in sacrifice for the whole world.
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