On this seventh day of Christmas, we continue to reflect on
Fr. Alfred Delp’s question, what difference it makes in our lives that Christ
is born.
And we return to the stable, three-legged base of the good
life provided by Pope Francis in his Midnight Mass homily as we look toward
Epiphany, the opening to that good life.
Proximity. This is how God works.
Pazienza di Dio, vicinanza di Dio, tenerezza di Dio: the patience of God, the closeness of God, the tenderness of God.
This morning we sit at the warming fire of the second
characteristic to which we are called, the closeness
of God. This is a morning on which much
of Western culture celebrates New Year’s Day…and the Catholic Church celebrates
“The Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God”.
Closeness. What more
perfect model than the pregnant mother, in which, as Fr. Delp says, the tension
between infinity and temporality is set to rest. Zero distance. Being married to a mother for 46 years now, I
can assert that the distance between mother and child remains zero in the
mother’s heart. The tension in the
mother is caused by the variance between this zero distance and the mathematics
of geography. Geographic distance x
maternal love = longing. Afterbirth: it’s
not merely a name for the physical connective tissue called placenta. It is a lifetime of feeling the pain of
separation.
In his description of the closeness of God Pope Francis describes
Jesus as an example:
"He was close to
the people. A close God who is able to understand the hearts of the people, the
heart of His people. Then he sees that procession, and the Lord drew near. God
visits His people in the midst of his people, and draws near to them.
Proximity. This is how God works. Then there is an expression that is often
repeated in the Bible: 'The Lord was moved with great compassion'. The same
compassion which, the Gospel says, that moved Him when he saw so many people
like sheep without a shepherd. When God visits His people, He is close to them,
He draws near to them and is moved by compassion: He is filled with
compassion".
"The Lord is
deeply moved, just as He was before the tomb of Lazarus". Just like the
Father who was moved "when he saw his prodigal son come home".
Again, the use of maternity to illuminate the idea of the closeness of God. Jesus restores the zero distance in this story in Luke
7. Soon
afterward he journeyed to a city called Nain, and his disciples and a large
crowd accompanied him. As he drew near
to the gate of the city, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son
of his mother, and she was a widow. A large crowd from the city was with her. When the Lord saw her, he was moved with pity
for her and said to her, “Do not weep.” He
stepped forward and touched the coffin; at this the bearers halted, and he
said, “Young man, I tell you, arise!” The
dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.
R. Buckminster Fuller’s OperatingManual for Spaceship Earth defines “synergy” as “behavior of wholes
unpredicted by behavior of their parts”.
The
scientist too sees that by relationships, the impact of individuals increases. We do more with others that independently.
Just as Jesus restored the son to his mother at Nain, Fuller
calls us to restore the earth by restoring our relationships. And Pope Francis, too, reminds us of this in
that same homily:
"Closeness and compassion:
this is how the Lord visits His people. And when we want to proclaim the
Gospel, to bring forth the word of Jesus, this is the path. The other path is
that of the teachers, the preachers of the time: the doctors of the law, the
scribes, the Pharisees ... who distanced themselves from the people, with their
words ... well: they spoke well. They taught the law, well. But they were
distant. And this was not a visit of the Lord: It was something else. The
people did not feel this to be a grace, because it lacked that closeness, it
lacked compassion, it lacked that essence of suffering with the people".
Tomorrow – more on the compassion through closeness as a
mutual restoration of hope
FreeLemonadeStand by John J. Daniels is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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