Christmas: A situational encounter with Christ.

We are situated human beings, encountering the realities around. Some situations come to us unasked for (take for example our own birth – we did not choose to be born), some we create and yet some situations come to us as a bolt from the blue!!! Yet these are our existential experiences. In this connection, a sight of an infant laying at the roadside, right in front of the shrine of Infant Jesus captured my attention. We normally don’t care to know who these people are except saying that they are gypsies without a permanent housing. But my encounter with the situation of the child stirred some questions - what would be the nationality of the child, who are its parents, what would be the child’s perception of the world when it is surrounded by the loud noises and the constant honking of the vehicles that speed past the little innocent? Why was landlessness and homelessness thrust upon this little child? Etc. On the other hand, I also tried to think the other side of the situation of the child- this child would be gifted with special ability to distinguish different sounds of the vehicles and would eventually identify faulty engines of the vehicles and that would make him or her a good mechanic. Or it would show distaste for sounds or totally loose the capacity for hearing. There is definitely a vast difference between the situation of the child and the situation that we find ourselves in (with a secure place to live, books to read, people to relate, etc.)

Being situated is a fact of being human. Having given a fact of being situated as our human condition, I would like to take you to another fact of being human – a situation intra-human, the fact that we do not understand the meaning of the whole. Now as believers, we come to know that what we know is only a little spark of the whole fire. The spark does not know the fire as a whole, but the full flame would definitely know the spark. Similarly, we do not know God, but God certainly knows us completely. Humanly speaking, in our approach to understand the real we are stranded by our limited intelligence. Incarnation, the event of God becoming man cannot be fully understood in intellectual terms, but make sense to us only in faith. Why is this so?  Our Late Pope John Paul II says that human beings by nature cannot withstand an excess of mystery and incarnation is too much a mystery. But Through the Christ-event, we are sure that what is impossible for man is possible for God. Through incarnation, God made himself tangible, that we may experience, see, hear and touch him.

Christ came into this world to share in our human condition and situatedness: God did not choose to remain absolutely transcendent and govern the whole universe; He chose to be situated like any one of us. He took the human form exactly to tell us that God knows our struggles and pain. His assuming the human form meant sharing in our situatedness – birth in a stable, living as a son of a carpenter, experiencing the human experience of shame, humiliation, false accusation, excruciating physical and emotional pain, and the rest. He came to share and care with the assurance that he is with us on our journey. 

In our moments of doubts and uncertainties, we still do not know what we cry for and most often our cries remain unheard. This is again another fact of our situatedness. Not only we cry for redemption but the whole world cries together with us. St. Paul writes in his letter to the Romans 8: 22 – “We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.” But what is really consoling is that God hears our Existential cry.

St. Paul again assuredly says “when we cry, “Abba! Father!” it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God,” (Rom, 8:15, 16)  

In sharing our human condition he came with a body that he be incorporated into the history of humanity showing us that we are never disconnected with eternity and the time we are in.

In the letter to the Hebrews 10:5, it is written, ‘When Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me.” This “body you have prepared for me” implies incarnation. He incarnated in human flesh and blood to show us the way to the Father. That is why he said, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” This is the same body that he glorified at resurrection and ascension. He became the offerer and the offered at the same time. He offered his life and his own life is offered for the good of each of us, calling us to represent him in all that we do and believe. Having a body is an essential element of our situatedness. What do we mean having a body with its senses, especially with the senses of hearing and sight? – With our ears, we try to discerningly hear the good news of the ‘birth of Christ”. Ofcourse, what we hear is in proportion to our disposition. The shepherds heard the good tidings in their own situation and predisposition – the shepherds had to keep awake at night that they may protect the sheep from the wild beasts, and losing the sheep would mean that they might either receive beatings from their master or their monthly pay would be cut in compensation for the sheep that is lost. It is in this situation that they hear the good news that a savior has been born for them in Bethlehem. The three wise men from the east in like manner received and fulfilled their quest for knowledge. After having heard and seen the Messiah, they had their turns and never betrayed what they heard and seen. It is exactly here that I want to stress that our faith comes from hearing and seeing is believing. We long to see him with our eyes of faith while strongly believing that He-is-with-us (Emmanuel!!)

Finally, let me conclude with a quote from Fulton J. Sheen who says:

“Our Lord came to die and the rest of us come to live.”