Essay – Journeying Into Mystery

Upon the 21st Anniversary of My Sister’s Death

21 years ago, somewhere between 1 and 2 a.m. my sister of 42 years died at St. Joseph’s Hospital in St. Paul. Her head cradled in the arms of her good friend, Dr. Bob Conlin, and with all of us gathered around her, Mary died. She died on a Sunday, the day during the week that we celebrated always as the Resurrection (note: in Lent you are NOT to fast ever on Sunday for that precise reason.)

It hardly seems like 21 years, 10 years perhaps, but not 21 years. Ruthie, the kids and I drove back to New Prague in those early hours of Sunday morning. We stopped briefly at the Holiday Station in Burnsville, then made our way home. Ruthie and I were up early to assist mom and dad in making Mary’s funeral arrangements. At first, I thought that Mary’s funeral would be on my birthday, the 12th, but her funeral ended up on the 13th with her wake on the 12th. Not a day passes without me thinking of her.

What is presented here is the bulletin article I wrote on July 3rd, this year, early in the morning, the day of my mother’s funeral.

A couple of years prior to his death, the great spiritual writer Fr Henri Nouwen wrote a book entitled, “Our Greatest Gift.” I was intrigued by the title. What is this greatest gift about which Nouwen devoted a whole book? Was it about Jesus, whom we would all agree is our greatest gift? No, the greatest gift Nouwen wrote about is “death.” Nouwen did ministry in a community of adults who had multiple developmental disabilities. On his birthday, one resident, a 30 year old man named Bill told Nouwen the hard, cold truth. Bill said, “Henri, you are old.” Nouwen acknowledged that the number of years he had before him were far fewer than the number of years behind him.

Dad and Mary Ruth just prior to her 8th grade graduation from St Rose of Lima School in Roseville, MN.

The subject of the book came to Nouwen during the 6 months he cared for his sister-in-law who was dying from cancer. He wrote about his ministry to another young man who was dying from HIV. Nouwen wrote that human death is the great equalizer in human society. People along the human spectrum, the powerful and powerless, the wealthy and the poor, those with great status and prestige and those with none at all, the lawful and the lawless, each and everyone of them will eventually die. Death claims us all, including Jesus Christ. Jesus was not above death but willingly died to be in solidarity with us whom he had created.

My saints in heaven, Mom, Dad, Nicodemus (the Peekapoo) and Mary Ruth.

Nouwen noted that human death need not be seen as horrible, but rather a mysterious passage through which we are born into eternal life. As babies must leave the safety and security of the womb to experience greater life, so must we leave the finite security of human life to pass into the fullness of eternal life. This is why the feast days of saints are not celebrated on the anniversary of their birth, but are celebrated on the anniversary of their death. The date of their death is the date of their birthday in heaven. Those of us whose lives have been touched by death receive comfort in knowing that Jesus, the Lord of the living and the dead, has conquered death once and for all, and leads our loved ones into the joy and peace of eternal life.

Mary Ruth in her favorite role as Auntie to my kids (Andy, Meg, and Mary Ruth)

Mary Ruth and I in a picture taken close to the time of her death.

What is a deacon?

I wrote this article for the local Knights of Columbus Council.

What is a Deacon?

Long before there were priests, there were deacons. In the Acts of the Apostles chapter 6, it is written, “At that time, as the number of disciples continued to grow, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. So the Twelve called together the community of the disciples and said, “It is not right for us to neglect the word of God to serve at table. Brothers, select from among you seven reputable men, filled with the Spirit and wisdom, whom we shall appoint to this task, whereas we shall devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” The Apostles chose seven men of good character, and ordained these men as deacons, to minister to the needs of the poor and vulnerable.

The Order of Presbyters, or priests, came later in Church history. As the Church evolved, the role of the presbyter increased and the role of the permanent deacon decreased and the order of the Permanent Deacon evolved into what is now called the transitional deacon (someone on the way to becoming a priest).

The Order of the Permanent Deacon was reborn in the Nazi concentration camp of Aushwitz. The imprisoned priests, like the early apostles, were overwhelmed by the needs of all in the camp and could not begin to minister to their desperate campmates. This was remembered at Vatican II and the Order of the Permanent Deacon was reinstated in the Latin Catholic Church.

Holy Orders consists of 3 levels of orders to which men are ordained: the first order is the diaconate, the second order is the presbyterate, and the third order is the episcopate. A priest is first ordained deacon prior to being ordained a priest. A bishop, is first ordained a deacon, then ordained a priest, before being ordained a bishop. When a man is ordained to the Permanent Diaconate, he chooses to remain a deacon for life. A deacon can be married as long as he is married prior to ordination. A priest (with a few exceptions) and a bishop must remain celibate. TRIVIA: a deacon can receive all 7 sacraments, while a priest or bishop can only receive 6 sacraments.

The best way to describe a deacon is “Christ as Servant.” While people usually see the deacon only in his liturgical role at Mass, the real work of the deacon is behind the scenes. You will find deacons ministering in hospitals, nursing homes, on the streets with the homeless, doing sacramental preparation in the parish, Habitat for Humanity, to name just a few ministries. Most deacons work other jobs along with their ministry in the Church.

What sacraments can deacons do? The deacon is given the faculty to proclaim the Gospel and preach at Mass. The deacon is an ordinary minister of baptism and holy communion. The deacon presides at marriages. The deacon presides at wakes, funerals and burials. The deacon ministers to the sick and the dying, however, the faculty to anoint the sick is limited to priests and bishops. Not unlike many bartenders, the deacon hears lots of confessions, but cannot absolve someone of their sins. In the absence of a pastor, the bishop can give permission to a deacon to administer a parish. The deacon is given the faculty to bless people and sacred objects.

At this point in history, there are not enough newly ordained priests to take the place of those priests who are dying or are retiring because of age and illness. There is an increasing need for more and more permanent deacons to assist the overwhelming work load many priests are experiencing these days.

“All is well,” Julian of Norwich and chaos at Christmas

The 13th century Anchoress, Julian of Norwich, said at one of the darkest times in European history, “All will be well and all will be well, and every kind of thing shall be well.” At the time she uttered this statement, the Black Death (Bubonic plague) was wiping out close to a third of the human population throughout all of Europe. Nations were at war. Death reigned. Yet, she made this statement all the same. This statement of hers is not overstated sentimentality of simplistic optimism. Rather, it acknowledges that in the midst of the blunders caused by humanity in which death, destruction and darkness seemingly overwhelms us, an alternative reality is really present.

I was watching Ken Burns documentary on World War II. Franklin Delano Roosevelt is heard stating to the citizens of the United States at about the time of the Battle of the Bulge, that it was hard for him to greet the nation with the words, “Merry Christmas.” This was especially so when all the world was encased in darkness, war, and horrible death. Yet, he persisted to say, that while it seemed almost impossible to say the word “merry” in relation to Christmas, it was needed to be stated, especially for all the soldiers who were in the midst of the fighting and destruction. The whole notion of a “Merry Christmas” is the hope to which they cling.

We are presently living in a world that is topsy-turvy. We have a president, an administration and a Congress that is very comfortable about issuing lies one after another. There are so many lies uttered by all involved that we do not know who to believe or what to believe. The world is on the brink of nuclear annihilation, so much so, that we are almost at the point of the Cuban Missile Crisis of the early ’60’s. The Congress is about to make into law a tax bill that will impoverish most of the middle class, destitute the elderly, and annihilate the poor, taking away, health care and all the other safety nets provided by the government, in order to please and enrich those who are already incredibly wealthy and who wish to control everything. All the protections put in place to remove the poisons in the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the land in which we plant our crops, has been stripped away by presidential decree or by presidential dupes. Not one living thing is safe anymore, anywhere.

It is tough enough for people to tolerate this time of natural darkness, at least in the northern hemisphere. To add on top of the personal losses suffered by people, these governmental assaults on humanity by the very people who were elected to serve us and protect us, can push people to the very brink of the abyss of despair. How can one believe the words that Julian of Norwich uttered so many, many years ago? It is very tempting instead to follow the advice of the 1960’s drug guru, Dr. Timothy Leary, to “turn on, tune in, and drop out.”

In the scriptural reading from the prophet Isaiah (41: 13-20) from this past Thursday’s Mass, God speaks at the very beginning of the reading, ‘” I am the LORD, your God, who grasp your right hand; I is I who say to you, “Fear not, I will help you.”‘ This is the true reality of which Julian of Norwich experienced. This is the true reality the soldiers sensed as the Battle of the Bulge raged around them. The bottom line is this, trump, mcconnell, ryan, and all the other destructive forces that are presently in Washington D.C. and the rest of the world will not prevail. They are not the ones who are truly in charge. Ultimately, they will have to answer to the LORD God, who IS in charge, for all the sins of greed they are exacting upon our nation at this time. They will have to answer to the LORD God for all the lies they are spreading, and all the false creeds they espouse.

It is in the LORD God that our trust is anchored. If our trust remains anchored in the LORD God, the present powers will be vanquished and God’s justice will prevail. “All IS well, and all IS well, and every kind of thing SHALL be well!”

How we keep Christmas is dependent on how we keep Advent.

As Americans, we live torn between two wholly different Christmas world views. Our nation begins the celebration of Christmas on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. On December 25^th, as our nation concludes the Christmas Season, the Catholic Church begins the Christmas Season which will end on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. As faithful Catholics living in the United States, how do we reconcile or find any balance between these two very conflicting world views? My parents found a way of reconciling this conflict many years ago.

On the first Sunday of Advent, my father would buy our Christmas tree, and set it up in our living room. My parents would drape the tree with lights and garland. My brother and sister and I would place the ornaments upon the tree. Along the base of the tree was a Christmas tree skirt, on top of which was placed our Christmas crèche. Around the base of the tree my father would set up the train tracks for our Lionel train. The Christmas crèche served a dual role as railroad station/birthplace of Jesus. However, the crèche was empty of Christmas figurines and no train was placed on the train track.

Where were the figurines of Mary and Joseph? Starting from the furthest place from the Christmas tree, my mother would move them throughout the living room. As the candles were lit on our Advent wreath, Mary and Joseph would gradually move closer to the stable. The lights on the tree would be turned on at night, however, the space below the tree remained empty, a visible reminder to us kids that Christmas was not here, yet.

When we came downstairs on Christmas morning, we found the Christmas crèche filled with the figurines of animals and shepherds. In their midst were Mary and Joseph, their gaze fixed upon the baby Jesus. The train would circumnavigate the tree, bringing invisible crowds of people to the stable where they, too, could adore the Christ child.

As we journey in this Season of Advent, basking in the light of Christmas decorations, drowning in the endless choruses of Christmas carols, concerts, and holiday specials, parties and food, let us be mindful that Christmas has not yet begun. The space below the Christmas tree remains empty. The real celebration will only begin when on December 25th, within the Christmas crèche, we see the figures of Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus.

An essay/reflection on an ancient poem.

SAILING NOWHERE

I was placed in my boat of reed,
And placed in a river run smoothed.
I drifted past Moses’ landing place,
Nestled amongst the rushes,
past Peter’s boat and fishing nets,
past reformed basilicas and black minarets,
and factories of manufactured creeds and needs;
all, whose only purpose is to clean the streets,
tattoo feet, and recycle old shoes and dirt.
I sailed, past them all,
into the unknown of the ocean.

I came across this poem I wrote as a sophomore in college. In the grand scheme of Fowler’s stages of faith development I was in stage four, in which I, as a 19 year old person, was questioning everything I had been taught by my parents, my Church, and my government. Every value I had been taught was up for grabs. Every value I had been taught was severely examined for lies and fabrication.

What I discovered was that the values my parents taught me were solid. My dad and mom lived authentically that which they believed. While I might not always hold to their politics, I was even a liberal then, I knew they were trustworthy.

On the other hand, while my Church preached the Good News, I found that my Church didn’t always live authentically the Good News. For a Church in which the Great Commandment of Jesus was central, to love one another as Jesus loved us, had been very poorly followed by many in the Church, including some revered saints. From the Crusades, through the Borgia Popes, the evils of the Spanish Inquisition, the slaughter and enslavement of indigenous people, the slaughter of many Christians, all in the name of God, was as bitter a betrayal of Jesus as that of Judas Iscariot. Could my Church, or for that matter, any institutionalized religion could be trusted? My 19 year old self said emphatically, “No!.”

Then there was the United States government. Like Ron Kovic (Born On the Fourth Of July), I had been taught to never question my government. Right or wrong, the government was never to be questioned. And, as Kovic discovered, the United States government was not to be trusted. It had lied about the Vietnam War. The sins of our politicians and our military descended upon us like a plague. Many men and women had their lives destroyed in this horrific war based on lies. The nation was torn in half. Those who had believed their government and fought honorably were despised by many opposed to the war. Even the American Legion would not accept them because they had not won the war. Those who opposed the war and either went to Canada to avoid the draft, or were imprisoned by refusing to be drafted were equally despised for having shirked their duties. All that followed by Nixon’s criminal behavior and those of his administration utterly shook the faith of the nation in the government. We all came away from this suspicious of all government, never entrusting our faith again in our political system.

It was from all of this that this poem was written. All these broken beliefs and trusts lay around me like shards of broken glass. However, out of this pile of broken debris arose, like a Phoenix, something incredibly wonderful. I began to embrace and welcome the truth of Mystery in my life.

I found that while religious and/or government creeds could not be trusted because much of it was of human construction, the concept of “Mystery” could be trusted. Mystery’s origin lay in the Divine. The one thing I could trust is that I am unable to understand Mystery. I can’t construct or control Mystery. Mystery is something to be experienced, something in which to be immersed. While some insight may be gained in the experience of Mystery, Mystery will never be fully understood. From the time of the burning bush, God can only be addressed as Mystery. The name God gave of God’s self to Moses is the ultimate Mystery, a Divine riddle that puzzles all who hear it. This mystery is aptly reflected in Sister Joan Chittester OSB definition of God as “changing changelessness.”

That 19 year old undergraduate of the College of St. Thomas is now a 65 year old Roman Catholic ordained deacon. How does this poem, written 46 years ago stand with me today? I find it still very spot on. The questioning never stops.

A faith that complacently accepts all that is taught is dead. True faith is life lived in the crucible. Faith is life lived in contradiction struggling to understand Mystery. Mystery is filled with paradox. There is a reorientation in our lives that is in direct opposition to what we have learned in our world. Jesus refers to this reorientation when he states that salvation is obtainable only by denying oneself and carrying one’s cross and following him, especially when this does not seem to make any rational sense. The word salvation is couched in mystery. Exactly what is salvation?

For all the stories of near death survivors, for all the soothsaying of mystics and mediums, no one truly knows with any certainty exactly that which awaits us as we leave this life for the next. In his song/poem, “Visions of Johanna,” (from the album “Blonde On Blonde”), Bob Dylan writes, “Inside the museum, infinity goes up on trial. Voices echo back, ‘This is what salvation must be like after a while.’” The then, agnostic Dylan (this was prior to his ‘religious conversion’) was trying to desperately understand the Mystery of salvation. I have come to think that perhaps his acknowledgement of not knowing was probably more a product of faith, than a lack of faith.

In the Gospels, Jesus uses mysterious metaphors in speaking of salvation. He often references wedding feasts to describe the elusive concept of heaven. During the time of Jesus, wedding feasts were occasions of joy, in which food, drink, warmth, happiness, and acceptance were provided for all who attended. Using this metaphor to describe salvation, Jesus is saying that it is that in which all human senses are sated and fulfilled.

All St. Paul can say on the subject is that what we see and believe to be real in this life is all transitory and empty. That which is truly real lays beyond the comprehension of our senses. In his not knowing, St. Paul was resolute in sacrificing everything, including his life, in order to embrace the Mystery which lay beyond his comprehension and senses. Within the Mystery of salvation lies a glory that is incomprehensible to our human minds. It must be experienced within Mystery.

As one who is beginning his 41st year of ministry in the Church, I am still on that boat of reed floating out into the unknown of the ocean. Being immersed in Mystery for all these years, I have come to know that not all creeds and beliefs, religious or political, may be true. I have come to accept that I will never fully understand that which I say and have promised to believe. In the Kevin Smith religious parody film, “Dogma”, a film that is at times extremely offensive and far off base, and at other times an honest, comedic critique of Catholicism, Rufus, the “13th Apostle”, says to the “last scion” that the words “I believe” means “we have a good idea about what we are saying.” That is a fairly accurate statement.

Living in and with Mystery has taught me that the grace and the goodness that flows out of the Church is of Divine origin. Grace and goodness does not originate in the bewilderment of our confused humanity. My trust in the Christian creedal statements lay not in the words expressed, but in the Mystery that lay beyond the words.

A continuation of the discussion about patriotic songs in Roman Catholic liturgy …

Yesterday, Fr. Jim Martin, SJ, wrote a very fine editorial on the prohibition of using patriotic songs in liturgy, especially the celebration of the Mass. Informed by the many liturgical classes at had at the St. Paul Seminary, and using the liturgical principles stated in the Church’s liturgical documents, I threw in my own two cents in addition to what Fr Martin expressed.

The celebration of the liturgical rites of the Church, including all sacramental rites, is focused on our relationship with God, NOT our relationship with our country of origin. Roman Catholic liturgy transcends all nations, all nationalities, all cultures, and all races. In fact, the liturgies of the Roman Catholic Church point and lead us to a concept that strikes at the heart of nationalism of any nation. Jesus did not just die for a particular nation, ideology, form of government, or culture. JESUS CHRIST DIED ON THE CROSS FOR ALL NATIONS, ALL IDEOLOGIES, ALL FORMS OF GOVERNMENTS AND ALL CULTURES. Not one of them was left out of Christ’s sacrificial offering.

Symbols of any nation, whether it be the American flag, the Canadian flag, the Mexican flag, the Vatican flag (the Vatican is recognized as a sovereign nation), or any nation, should be not be displayed in any liturgical space. If a congregation wants to have a flag flying outside the Church, or in the narthex of the Church, fine. But the flag of any nationality must not be within the liturgical space for the simple reason that Jesus did not die to save just the people of that nation. JESUS DIED FOR THE SALVATION OF ALL PEOPLE, INCLUDING THE ENEMIES OF ANY PARTICULAR NATION. This is what our Roman Catholic liturgy expresses in word and sacrament. In the middle of the American Civil War, when a person stated to President Abraham Lincoln that God was on the side of the North. Lincoln responded so very succinctly, “The question is not whether God is on our side. The question is, are we on God’s side?”

Roman Catholic liturgy transcends all the divisions of human language, culture, customs, and nations simply because ALL of humanity are children of God, all of humanity, including our sworn enemies!

If one objects to this by saying, “you are getting too political”, well, the gospel of Jesus Christ is very political. The Great Commandment of Jesus, the Beatitudes, the mandate by Jesus to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, take of the sick, visit the imprisoned and welcome the stranger are very political positions that transcends the ideologies of political parties. No political party is the political party of Jesus. No government, and no ideology is that of Jesus. The gospel of Jesus must be used to evaluate all political party platforms, all ideologies, and all national governments. And, in doing so, all of them will fall woefully short. All the more so political emblems, symbolism and songs must not be part of Roman Catholic liturgy.

If one wants to wrap themselves in the flag, or the political parties they espouse, then they must do it at events that are strictly limited to those kinds of events. There is a time and place for all these things, however, they must not be imposed upon the Mass or any other Roman Catholic liturgy. God has primacy over all these very human creations.

Last, but not least, the Mass and other Roman Catholic liturgies points us to a reality to which God is leading us. When God created the universe, God created all things to be in and live in harmony. Sin, as St. Paul states, drove disharmony into God’s creation. The great sin of humanity was to sow disruption and pain into the harmony God created. From the disharmony that humanity sowed rose greed, violence, war, and destitution. From the disharmony that humanity sowed rose human factions in opposition to one another. From the disharmony that humanity sowed rose persecution, religious intolerance, and genocide.

Jesus came to restore the harmony that humanity destroyed by Sin. In the celebration of the Mass, all of humanity is welcomed around the table of the Lord to join in a common meal. The great eschatological meal envisioned by Isaiah, Chapter 2, of all nations ascending the mountain of God, to feast and drink at the great meal provided to humanity by God, and to feast on the words, the wisdom, and the love of God is present at the celebration of the Mass. This is not the time for symbols and songs of division and disharmony, but, instead, symbols and songs of harmony and unity. The Mass is the Thanksgiving meal for all of humanity. It is a restoration of that primordial harmony which God intended for creation as the Divine breath of God stirred life within the waters of the Abyss.

Our churches, daresay, our homes must reflect this restoration of the beginning. It is said that Church begins at home. How well do we embrace the harmony God intended for all of creation? While there is no sin in displaying one’s patriotism outside his/her home, I prefer to display in symbol the harmony God intended. Outside our home, we fly the “Earth” flag, in the hope that one day those differences between nations and governments will be destroyed forever, along with all weapons humanity has created to sow disruption and pain into our world. Foregoing all national symbols that illustrate the disconnection of humanity, I encourage all people to focus on symbols that will unite us as a common people of God, whom God loved so much that God sent, Jesus, the Son, the Logos of God, to redeem us.

Dr. Maurice A. Jones, Scrooge, and the Incarnation of Jesus

Dr. Maurice A. Jones, seating atop of his wooden stool in the Chorale’s rehearsal hall at the College of St. Catherine.

I have related this story a number of times. I have always felt I have never quite capture the essence of what I experienced, and, probably will not at this, my current attempt.

At the end of the Fall semester, the last rehearsal of the Chorale of the College of St. Catherine, was always magical, at least for me. The Christmas concert having been performed, we came into the rehearsal hall relaxed and in good spirits. The rehearsal hall was set up very simply. Along one of the walls was a large coffee urn filled with hot chocolate. Alongside the urn was a basket filled with small candy canes. And, next to the basket were napkins and Styrofoam cups. In the middle of the hall was the wooden stool utilized so often by our director, Dr. Maurice Jones.

We would get our cup full of hot chocolate, a couple of napkins, insert the candy cane into the hot chocolate and sit on the floor around the wooden stool. Maurie sat down, and opened his copy of Dicken’s Christmas Carol. As we sipped our hot chocolate and ate whatever food we may have brought with us for lunch (many of us were “brown baggers”), he would launch into a dramatic reading of the Christmas Carol.

Dr. Jones in one of his dramatic roles in a stage production in the Twin Cities.

It should be noted that Maurie Jones was not only an excellent choir director and professor of music, he was an outstanding actor, well known in the Twin City for his acting skills. His face and his voice were animated as he began the story, “MARLEY was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it: and Scrooge’s name was good upon ‘Change, for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail.”* Because our rehearsal time was only an hour long, Maurie would read up to the part in which the Ghost of Christmas Past visited Scrooge, and then, segue to Scrooge awakening Christmas morning, following his grim visit from the Ghost of Christmas Future, and read to the conclusion of the story.

Many of us would have been happy to sit all afternoon to hear the entirety of the story, but since this occurred at the end of the semester and we all had finals in the rest of our classes, we reluctantly left the rehearsal hall, albeit, far better than we had entered, and filled with anticipation for Christmas.

In that short hour, sitting on the floor sipping hot chocolate and eating cookies, transfixed and enthralled by the storytelling skills of Dr. Jones, all of us “adults” were transported back to the time of our childhood when our parents would similarly read to us from the story books we had in our little libraries. I remembered well my dad reading to me while we sat on the couch in our living room. That short hour with Maurie Jones and Charles Dickens was, for lack of better words, a “magical Christmas moment.” One could say that if the Ghost of Christmas Past came visiting me, this moment in time would be one to which I would be whisked back.

What does this Christmas memory have to do with the Incarnation of Jesus?

Advent is a time, in the parlance of Charles Dickens and his story about Scrooge, in which we get a visit from the Ghost of Christmas Past and the Ghost of Christmas Future.

In Advent, we look to the future coming of Jesus, the time when Jesus will come again and all hunger, all poverty, and all the insufferable things that human beings do to one another will cease. This moment we envision will be truly “magical”, when God’s love will be made manifest and true peace, contentment, and love will be experienced by all. As we anticipate the second coming of Jesus, we remember the time in history when God was made manifest in human history, the time in which God put on, crawled into, so to speak, human flesh and bone in the person of Jesus, God incarnate.

What of the Ghost of Christmas Present? In whom or in what do we experience the Incarnation of Jesus? This is where the onus of making Jesus Incarnate falls not upon some past event or future event of Jesus, but upon us. The only one who can make Jesus Incarnate in the present is our own selves.

As an expectant mother, the presence of Jesus has been gestating within us for the past 4 weeks. On Christmas we must give birth, must make Incarnate, the presence of Jesus. As Jesus “put on the skin of humanity” at his Incarnation, we, at Christmas (and, for that matter all other days) must “put on the skin of Jesus” and within ourselves make his presence known to all people. In the imagery of the Gospel, we must enflesh ourselves with Jesus Christ.

After all these many years, 44 years to be exact, following my initial experience of Dr. Jones retelling of Dicken’s Christmas Carol in the rehearsal room of the Chorale at the College of St. Catherine, I finally begin to appreciate the significance of the event. In Maurie’s own person, he embodied Jesus the master storyteller enthralling people with his words, his stories and parables leading people closer to the God who created them. Maurie in the Present of that time, made Christ manifest, not in some elaborate way with all sorts of storytelling pyrotechnics and CGI, but in the simplicity of a bare rehearsal hall, a coffee urn full of hot chocolate, a basket of candy canes, a wooden stool, and, a well worn copy of Dicken’s Christmas Carol.

If the Ghost of Christmas Past would visit all the people who have known us, would they find within their relationship with us at that time, the presence of Jesus Christ? If not, now is the time in which we must, like Scrooge in the story, begin to Incarnate the presence of Jesus Christ to those we know, so that Christ’s presence made be manifest also when the Ghost of Christmas Future comes a-knocking.

* Dickens, Charles. A Christmas Carol (p. 1). Public Domain Books. Kindle Edition.

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