Christmas

12/25/06

by Fr.Gus Carter

Christmas season in the prayer of the Church lasts more than a month. During that time we read often in the prayers of this time: "0 wondrous exchange; God becomes human so that humans may become Godlike." Most philosophers accept that humans are transcendent beings. We never come to the end of our capacity to know or to love. This does suggest that the way we are made makes it possible for us to share divine life and divine love. It is awesome that someone created could come to share eternal life and eternal love.

Because of this, the early teachers of the Church called "Fathers" claimed that a single human is more important than the entire physical universe. Some individuals rarely reflect on their existence. There are occasions, though, when they are struck by some wonder of nature. To see the multitude of stars in the sky on a clear night away from city lights is a spectacular display. Such an experience caused the Jewish mystic, Abraham Hesche!, to say, "I do not believe in God, I know there is a God." I recall the fascinated excitement in a biology class as we watched one celled blobs move under the microscope. We had a glimpse of the invisible world beneath us that we are hardly aware of. In nature we become aware of the magnificent power behind all things. Studying the human body invites many wonderful experiences. Jewish mystical writings, called Kabbalah, suggest that one of the best ways of encountering the wonders of God is to pay close attention to our humanity. We can wonder at the mind's ability to reach out into the vast distances of galaxies. We may realize that there is a microscopically infinite world within us. These experiences are to me another sign of human transcendence. The human mind is open to the vastness of outer space and able to know of another infinitely small physical universe within us.

St. Augustine, in his "Confessions," marveled at the human memory. He said, "What a huge storage place is the memory with its secret and hard to imagine containers. It keeps all we have done to be recalled and brought out for use when needed, and then puts those memories back somehow in their proper places." Thoughts like these caused Augustine to be caught up in wonder at the vast resources and complexities of our Creator.

St. Hilary spoke of the marvels of human speech. We conceive and formulate ideas that we can put into words. We are able to convey ideas and intentions to others. Hilary prayed he would use this marvelous gift for the glory of our Maker. I think clearly a marvelous gift to humans is compassion. The gift of compassion is the ability to enter into the feelings, thoughts and experiences of another person. St. Luke tells us, "Be compassionate as your heavenly Father is compassionate." Compassion includes the incentive to help relieve the pain of another person. We can see how compassion makes us Godlike. We become able to enter the thoughts and feelings of others so that we can help them. At the same time, when we are compassionate, we come to understand better what is the really important thing of life. We come to a greater understanding of ourselves. No wonder the Buddhists insist that the way to become enlightened is to live life compassionately.

We believe that the Son of God came into the world to translate the meaning of God into human words and human actions. Through knowing Jesus, we come to know what God is like. Jesus

explicitly stated, "He who sees me sees the Father." One title to explain Jesus' mission is that he is "the parable of God's acceptance of each human being." Through Jesus we come to know of the Lord's unconditional love for each of us. Equally important, Jesus demonstrates how to lead human life authentically. All these things cause us to celebrate the birth of Christ.

All these things remind us of our personal dignity. We have been created to share the life of God. To do this we have been created the pinnacle of creation. We should have great respect for ourselves and for others. We say sometimes of another person, "He thinks he is God's gift to the world. " We can see how this is true of those we love. We must keep in mind that by our acceptance and compassion we help each other to be God's gift to the world.