This is the last step on our journey towards the incarnation and the celebration that we as Christians commit to on a yearly basis. It is not the Xmas of commercialism that has become the tradition. It is not the paraphernalia of expensive gift giving and rites that have been debased to a frenzy of anxiety and fearfulness in the eyes of many. Rather it is a gathering together of the faithful in a celebration around the Christ Mass in its simplicity and welcome that reveals at its heart love rather than division, anxiety, loss and hate. Today we celebrate that love and renew it in our hearts so that we may join together once more to celebrate the coming of Christ into the midst of a world churned by violence and divided by hatred.
Love is an ideal or at least we idealise it for ourselves. However, we need to fathom what it is for ourselves and how we can make it an actuality within the lives of, not just ourselves, but also those around us so that we can form better communities. I do not know about you but I am dreading the in coming Trumpian era as much as I have been repulsed by the paucity of truth coming out of the minds of his selections. The reason I am dreading this new Trumpian era is the total lack of respect and truth that will be peddled in our direction over a period of the next few years. It has inevitably kicked of early and brings a wet blanket to the joy we should be seeing this Christmas. If we are to have people lead us and the world, whether it is at local, state or federal or on the world stage, then they should by rights reflect our normative behaviours and the community's from which they come from. At present most politicians, or at least the ones striving for leadership and renown, I would not have in my backyard as a result of the lack of love, righteousness and peace they exude. Most particularly if they claim any form of religious belief.
Paul in his letter to the Corinthians lays out precisely what love should be and how it is to be expressed in the community. If we cannot begin at the basic level of honest communication and honest reflection of our neighbours then we should not be representing any faith community. At the heart of all faiths is this key concept of respect and love for the other over and above ourselves. The issue is that we often interpret things to our understanding and not align ourselves with God's understanding. It becomes more and more important for us that what we think is right is right. Thus, when we consider love of neighbour we often tack on a proviso tacked onto the end of the thought, "except...". No matter who we are we fall into this fallacy that love of neighbour means those that we consider worthy to be our neighbour. But as both Paul and Christ point out love is above our pettiness and covers all people made in God's image and all life made from God. How can we not include love for and protection for our environment if we love our neighbour?
If we lack the basic understanding that we need to both respect and acknowledge our neighbours point of view we also are unable to begin to express God's love for us. Even John in the womb recognised the other and leapt in joy and love when Mary entered the home (Lk 1:39-45). In preparation for next week we need to understand the basic fundamental of God's redeeming love is available to all despite what we, individually, may believe. Christ is incarnate as a human being not as a some extraordinarily different person or species. No, God incarnate that we celebrate next week, is a reflection of humanity as a whole. If a single person in an age that was filled with violence and greed, just as today is, with petty politics and the grubbing for power, just as today is, can exhibit a love for each person they meet then so can we as human beings. It is not a hard thing to do but it is a hard thing to overcome the conditioning that the world has fed us over the many years of our lives. In our last week of reflection before we come before the Christ child to honour and praise God we need to understand this love that God has demonstrated to us in Christ. It is only when we can clearly demonstrate that love amongst ourselves that we can become a transforming community of God's love to the world. It is in that very community that we gather the strength to show love as without the support that each of us gives we will degenerate back into the selfish lives that we so often manage to demonstrate to the world.
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