All will end well in Emmanuel
Professor Anton Meemana
Incarnation of God is not an abstract event. God took flesh in order
to relate to us personally and redeem us specifically. Incarnation is
the reincarnation of hope. Incarnation is the divine manifestation, the
divine indwelling in our midst, par excellence. The intelligibility of
the incarnation is infinite.
The mystery of incarnation is the unfathomable mystery entering into
human history in a decisive and definitive manner; that is, the mystery
began to indwell in history. Incarnation has radically altered our
understanding of time and space. With the coming of Christ, time has
become teleological, eschatological and Christological. Time and space
has been Christified and deified in order to facilitate the
sanctification of humanity.
Incarnation transforms the whole universe into admiration, adoration,
aspiration and appreciation. Incarnation has hemmed us in, engulfed us,
embraced us and enveloped us permanently . Incarnation is our real
protective skin. Incarnation has liberated us, redeemed us, without the
help of reincarnation.
Light and darkness
It is the light of incarnated light that enlightens everyone. In that
light, we see the evil deeds of human beings. Evil deeds are exposed not
in order to condemn them, but in order to redeem them. Real expose is
always redemptive and liberating. Unexposed deeds are unredeemed and
unfulfilled deeds. Wicked deeds are the seeds of redemption and
temptations are means for purification and sanctification.
Light expoces the nakedness, wickedness, and crookedness of darkness
in history. Light is not afraid of darkness. Darkness hesitates, wavers,
doubts itself in the presence of light. Light is the delight of those
who live in darkness and have come to realize it.
Each person has to grapple with the myriad meanings of incarnation.
It offers infinite possibilities for living our lives joyfully, starting
everything anew and reorienting our perspectives.
Humility, titles and false securities
Incarnation is a fruit of Divine humility. The perspective of
humility is the perspective of eternity .Humility is letting go of all
our false securities, bloated and swollen-egos and stripping off of all
titles, prestige and unnecessary and unhealthy attachment to them.
Humility is daily death to our false-selves. Until we practice humility,
like Christ, we cannot begin to live properly.
It is to serve without the comfort and security of an office or a
privilege position in society. True individual identity is beyond one's
worldly titles. We find our true identity in intimacy with God. Then God
penetrates straightly through our cloaks, uniforms and gowns into our
innermost soul and heart.
Christ is beyond all titles and offices and therefore supremely free
in order to serve us. A server of humanity is the real deserver of
Christ. A real disciple of Christ is the real celebrator of Christmas.
To be human is to be humble. As Saint Theresa of Avila says "humility
is truth". The one who lives humbly lives nimbly. Nothing in life is
exaggerated or minimized. Truth about ourselves, our own lives, our own
situations makes us radically free. Humility is radical honesty about
ourselves. In humility, one is in touch with true-self, real-self,
original-self, authentic-self and divine-self. Interiorly free life is
life-giving all the time. Life lived in truth is truly life giving.
A free life flows and flares forth from deep within, from the deepest
kernel and core of one's heart, one's whole existence.
Truth, freedom, love and humility are not isolated and separate
virtues but different facets of the same diamond. Life lived in freedom
is very pleasing to God indeed and such a person is doing justice to his
or her God given life. The splendour of one's humility is the fragrance
of one's humanity. One's humanity radiates one's humility brilliantly.
Insults, freedom and love
The true measure of freedom is our intrinsic capacity to love people
who hate us, insult us, ridicule us, slander us, make fun out of us,
spread rumours about us, gossip about us,abhor us, back-bite us, put us
down and downgrade us. To love them, bless them, pray for them, serve
them, and help them without expecting anything in return is the very
depth of one's freedom and a manifestation of one's humility. The more
they abhor us, all the more we must love them. Those who hate us deeply
offer us an evangelical opportunity. On behalf of them all, we must
witness to the gospel values ardently. The gospel is the only spell that
sets us free, liberates us and heals us. Christmas is the incarnation of
that gospel in the midst of us.
Every hater, vicious gossip, slanderer, pervert, character-assassin
and back-biter offers us a rare opportunity for radical spiritual
growth. Grace under pressure is the real spiritual treasure. Divine
grace is constantly facilitated in and through them. Slanderous tongue
is a spiritually prosperous opportunity. Every situation contains an
evangelical dimension.
Insults are means for purification, ridicules are means for
sanctification. The greater the challenges and hardships in life are,
the better for one's spirituals journey. Great losses are grand lessons.
God shatters us in order to make us glitter. All that glitters now
has once been shattered.
Even in the midst of confusion, spiritual dryness, emptiness,
aimlessness, frustrations, disappointments, God is ever active in our
lives and we need a little patience and perspective to find God in them.
Only where God seems to be absent, can God be truly found and glimpsed.
His apparent absent is his active presence. By being absent, He truly
becomes present in our midst. God is very Zen in that sense. God is the
greatest and profoundest Zen master. At each second of our lives, God's
active presence is very Zen. God zens in order to make sense.
Living gracefully
Difficulties are opportunities. Crises are guises for spiritual
transformation. Union and communion with God enhances our solidarity and
connectivity with our fellow human beings. God is the ultimate
foundation of our common humanity. God is the Gordian knot that ties us
together. To cut that knot is to be scattered, shattered and littered as
a human family. Union and communion with God is the unity and
universality of us all.
The more we possess material things, the more anxious and restless we
become. The more we have, the emptier we become. But there is a
permanent solution to this emptiness, that is, one should get one's true
identity from God; God is the true identity-giver. The one who clings to
God, the one who cleaves to God, the one who clicks to God and the one
who connects to God needs nothing else. The one who clings to God sings
forever and the one who clings to God never slings. We cleave to God in
order never to leave. God is everything one can have in this life and
the life next and without God one is absolutely nothing.
God indwells amongst the humble. God takes such delight and deep
pleasure in them. One of the ways to remain humble is to genuinely live
with and care for the poorest of the poor. God indwellest amongst the
slum dwellers.
Part of holiness is our daily and increasing capacity to accept and
expect bigger challenges and to do gracefully what we habitually do not
like to do.
Authentic humanity
Humility is another name for authentic humanity. One cannot cultivate
one's deep humanity, one's humaneness without cultivating humility.
Humility is the direct channel to God; in it, one can quite accurately
glimpse the divine ebbs and flows. In proportion to our humility, the
divine grace ebbs away or overflows. Humble people are truly nimble
people.
The humble person is the freest person. The quality of one's love is
in direct proportion to one's humility. Infinite humility gives birth to
infinite love. Jesus was the greatest lover ever for he was the humblest
forever.
Out of humility, he became one of us in order to elevate us. In other
words, God became human in order to make us Divine.
Our capacity to love is in proportion to our humility. The proud
people are not capable of loving truly.
Pride and love are diametrically opposed to each other. Pride aborts
our innermost, intrinsic, inherent and interior capacity to love. Proud
people live intimately frozen and absolutely boring lives.
What is deeply deep within us radiates without in all directions. It
envelops, permeates, embraces the whole outer persona and everything
else around about us. What is deep within surrounds what is without.
What is incarnated radiates universally. Christmas is the spread of that
fragrance everywhere. |