This is the last Coracle of the year and will return to your inbox on the 8th of January. Thank you for subscribing to this newsletter and I hope you have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
I understand for many it will not feel so merry or maybe even feel like Christmas; but neither Covid nor Governments nor any other power on earth can take our Lord away - we are His and He is Ours. Although we may be severely limited in whom we can visit, in the Lord Jesus we are all One in Him and more so if we are brother and sister in the faith.
A Russian Icon of St Nicholas (St Nikolaos of Myra/Bari) surrounded by scenes from his life showing him giving gifts in secret to others.
The season of Advent has been for us a time to grow in longing for God to be born, so that He may reveal Himself to us, to be a lamp for our footsteps and to be with us as we journey towards Heaven. The saints who have accompanied us are little oases through the desert that refresh us, strengthen our spirits, encourage us and give us hope to keep going. They made it to Bethlehem – so have we. After Our Lord was born in their spiritual Bethlehem, the four Johns, like the wise men, left by another way; in other words, they were changed. John the Evangelist became a great mystic, John the Baptist – a voice for the Word, John Damascene – an orthodox theologian, and John Paul II – a witness to the power of Marian devotion. After having spent some time in Bethlehem, what will we become?
The Incarnation cannot leave us indifferent, unmoved, for it is like an earthquake which changes the landscape around us. It is interesting to note that Didymus the blind, a disciple of Origen, inherited from the rabbinic tradition a fascinating way of putting together prophetical texts. He says that the earthquake during the days of Uzzi’ah king of Judah as recalled by Zechariah (Zech 14:5) happened at the same time as Isaiah received his vision of God and the seraphim, (Is 6:1-8)[1] and one of them descended to him with a burning coal which – as I mentioned before – is a prefiguration of the two natures of Christ (as interpreted by Origen, Jerome and John Damascene). The Incarnation, then, is like an earthquake! We should feel the ground move under our feet when we hear this Good News – that God is with us! Whatever safe place we think we have reached is now in a precarious situation; our lowly state is now the high ground. The world is turned upside down and everything has changed.
The desert is now a spring (Is 41:18); water and honey flow from the rocks (Ps 81:16) (Ex 17:6). Herod’s palace has become a rubbish dump – the manger is now a citadel. Emperors lose their power – a new-born baby is King: “He casts the mighty from their thrones and lifts up the lowly (Lk 1:42-43).” The Kings of Old were to be served; the New King has come to serve (Mt 20:28). Men are fools – children are wise. “The rich are sent away empty and the starving are filled with good things. (Lk 1:44).” The Pharisees, who were first, are now last; the tax collectors and prostitutes, being last, are now first (Mt 20:16). The priests are no longer custodians of the Law; the New Law is written on the hearts of each image of God (Jer 31:33). The Old Law was heavy – the New Law is easy and light (Mt 11:29-30).The houses of Caiphas and Annas are nests of vipers; Zaccheus’ house is where salvation comes (Lk 19:9). Human wisdom is foolishness and God’s foolishness is wise! See how the order has changed forever! Jesus came to “cast fire upon the earth (Lk 12:47)”, to bring the sword and “to separate the sheep from the goats (Mt 25:32).” The small tent which He has pitched among us has ripped open the heavens (Mk 1:10), shaken the heart of the earth (Mt 27:51) and made hell tremble. The angels sing and praise God (Lk 2:13); the demons no longer speak (Mk 1:25). The Garden of Eden is reopened, hell is shut closed.
Even though the Incarnation is like an earthquake, it is also gentle like a breeze. Jesus comes in such peace and quiet that “the world did not know him (Jn 1:10)” and there was no room for him at the Inn (Lk 2:7). He was born not in a palace in the centre of Rome but in a dusty town called Bethlehem. Immanuel, God-with-us, is “gentle and humble of heart,” whose “yoke is easy and burden light” (Mt 11:29-30). He hasn’t come to overthrow the current order with armies, but quietly and humbly enters Jerusalem riding on a donkey (Lk 19:35). He is the gentle lamb that saves the flocks and the oxen from sacrifices.[2] He has not come to kill or destroy but to offer up His own life for our salvation. He quietly changes water into wine (Jn 2:1-11) He calms the storm with a word (Mt 4:35). His voice is quiet and found in the gentle breeze, in silence (1 Kgs 19:12). Jesus doesn’t throw stones but speaks words of mercy (Jn 8:11). He has come “not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him (Jn 3:16).”
Jesus hasn’t come to impose his will against ours; He wants us to participate in His plan of redemption, to model ourselves on His Mother who said, “behold, the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to thy word (Lk 1:38).” God’s humility and gentleness is His strength and His dependency on human participation reveals His power.[3] His weakness is stronger than human strength (1 Cor 2:25) says St. Paul, and so when we are weak, then we are strong (2 Cor 12:10) because He has come to redeem every part of our human nature which He has assumed; He is like us in every way except sin and sympathises with our weaknesses (Heb 4:14-15). This is the Good News of the Incarnation: God became man so that men might become God! This is the “sweet exchange”[4] – the spiritual marriage between God and human nature.[5] “Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him (Mt 25:6).”
Our journey through the desert tells us how life-changing this Good News is. The Lord pitches up His tent in the driest place and wants to crack it open and turn it into a spring. When we leave Bethlehem and go back into the desert of our life, we will be renewed in our faith that He will still swoop down to visit us – on the one hand, like an earthquake which turns our world upside down, reversing whatever is opposed to God the right way up – giving us a new mind and new eyes; on the other like a gentle breeze which is a word of peace (Ps 85:8) which God gives us as consolation and joy as we journey through the trials and temptations of life.
May the Gentle Earthquake, crack open a new space inside us so that we may renew our spirits with the mysticism of John the Evangelist, the asceticism of John the Baptist, the orthodoxy of John Damascene and the Marian devotion of John Paul II. Strengthened by Jesus Christ and His saints, we can venture forth into 2021 with confidence as we face the trials, worries, doubts and uncertainties that will come our way. The wobbly ground that we stand is the place of our salvation for “the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us (Jn 1:13).”
[1] Didyme l’Aveugle, Sur Zacharie, ed. L.Doutreleau (SC 83), t.3, Paris 1962, V, pp.60-66; 1002-1007. [2] St Ephraim the Syrian, Hymns on the Nativity, 5, https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3703.htm [3]Lumen Gentium 60; Redemptoris Mater 38.[4]Epistle to Diognetus (Cap. 8,5 – 9,5: Funk 1, 325-327) [5] St. Thomas Aquinas, S.T, III, a.30, 1.
Reverend Chris Doig | Stuck in Rome
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