No. I am not going to discuss the 1998 Korean movie “Christmas in August” – nor to make the point that the real Christmas is almost around the corner! Rather, I would like to lay the foundation — or the prequel — to today’s gospel (John 6:56-69), and how it may teach us and help us in our daily living.
One of the lesser-known names for Christmas is “The Feast of the Incarnation.” The name makes a reference to the opening verses of the great gospel of John which is one of the Christmas Day’s lessons. In verse 14, chapter 1, St. John writes, “And the Word, the living Word of God became flesh, as human as can be, to live among us.”
In the words of St. Athanasius, one of the early Fathers of the Church, out of the “loving-kindness and goodness of His own Father, [Jesus was] manifested to us in a human body for our salvation.”
Or in St. Paul’s words, all that is God and what God has to say about his will and purposes for creation, became embodied in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. As we sing in Hymn 135, “God in man made manifest.”
Now, since time immemorial, most if not all religions make the point that there is a gap between what is human and what it is divine. Many religions stress that the divine, just because it is divine, cannot mess himself with what are the miseries of humankind — selfishness, vindictiveness, and hatred, sprinkled now and then with a touch of goodness. Which god in his right mind would like to be muddied in the realm of human beings?
Such idea even today is quite prevalent – and quite convenient if I may say so. In America it is present in the notion of a God in which we can trust and that’s it. The pursuit of happiness and freedom and justice is the business of humankind to which endeavor a far, far away God may bless from time to time.
In fact, such idea is quite convenient, so much so that it is one of the fundaments of what has been defined as civil religion – or American religion-less religion!
First, an alien and remote god couldn't care less about how anyone would live his or her own life, or what happens to one’s neighbor – as long as one wears the team’s colors. And, to top it off, it provides a veneer of respectability to greed and self-interest.
The Christian faith, however, teaches that in love, God decided to come not as a ghostly and disembodied visitor, but as human as you and I can be. Love moved God to break “the wall of separation” to open us the way to life as God intended it to be.
I am not sure if the early Jewish people would have objected to the idea of God being physically present. You may recall that for them, God appeared as an “angel” or “emissary” who was invited to make himself at home and brake bread with humans.
However, by the time of Jesus, and no doubt by the influence of other religions, the idea of God showing up among men what something completely out of the question. And so, they couldn’t make sense of Jesus – they only saw in him the son of a carpenter.
Or, as in our gospel, they could not make sense of someone who said that God abided in Him, as He abided in the Father. In other words, Jesus claimed full and complete identity with God. And, it is this “and” which makes it good news because it makes clear that as Jesus became human we too could become like Him.
Hence, it is not wonder that even the disciples found such teaching so difficult to understand. That Jesus broke bread, they got it. But accepting that Jesus was indeed the true bread that gives life to the world it was far beyond their comprehension. And this is why at the heart of the Christian faith there is “faith”.
Now, faith is not irrational. Faith is accepting that there are things that one cannot understand and then, nevertheless, one can accept them as a working proposition.
Like electricity which can light a lamp, move a motor, or make our ubiquitous cell phones possible. Not understanding how things work, will not stop anyone flying an airplane, a machine heavier than air. Or to ride a car which transforms a liquid or electricity into movement.
Indeed, St. Paul, picking up from Abraham’s experience affirmed, “It is through faith that a person finds life”, (Romans 1:17).
Now, how all this relates to my daily life you may ask. Let me direct you to our second lesson, Ephesians 6.
There, St. Paul uses three powerful imperative verses. First in verse 10 he writes, “Be strong.” Or, in other words do what you need to do. Dig in your heels and stand. Don’t give up. Be yourself. And that is the human advice that you may receive from any friend or parent. But immediately St. Paul adds, “and trust God’s power.”
The Christian faith never is an either/or teaching. Our faith is incarnational. There is always the divine and the human all in together. There is Mary and there is Baby Jesus. There is Jesus the Son of the Living God and there is the Christ facing death and dying like anyone of us.
So, Paul insists. Do what needs to be done but trust that somehow God’s power will enable you to pull it off. The human and the divine, as Jesus demonstrated it for us, can and will go hand in hand.
Then St. Paul writes, “Put on the armor.” This is what we are called to do whenever we need to do battle against our circumstances — or even against ourselves! But then Paul makes clear that it is not an ordinary armor, but is the armor of righteousness, of truth, and of peacemaking.
In St. Paul’s mind, doing battle against whatever adversity is not about complaining or lashing out, but it is about using the word of God — what God has to say about the situation.
Finally, St. Paul writes, “Pray.” Prayer is what we do. We may use our own words or beautiful prayers that best represent what you may have in mind and wearies your spirit. But then St Paul adds, “in the Spirit”. That is, learn to pray what Jesus would have prayed in the same circumstances.
And it is such understanding what makes the Lord’s Prayer our most fundamental prayer — even when we do not see how it could fit our actual circumstances.
Praying the Lord’s Prayer is just one more way in which we, human beings, can flesh out the God's incarnation in Jesus of Nazareth. And, in doing so, we make ours God’s concerns about what comes first. And here is the good news. Jesus promised that if we take God’s concerns firsts, then everything else will be added unto us.
Let me say this. As we say every Sunday, our prayers may be answered – or not – as may be best for us. But the Lord’s Prayer will never fail to be answered.
Let me end with this Sixth Century prayer,
O Lord Jesus Christ,
by your incarnation you united
things earthly and heavenly.
Fill us with the sweetness
of inward peace and goodwill,
that we may join the heavenly host
in singing praises to your glory;
for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever. Amen.
Fr. Gustavo
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