Cardinal Tobin: We are comforted, and made uncomfortable, by the Lord’s coming again
My dear sisters and brothers in Christ,
In this season of joy, we become aware once again that God is closer to us than we dare admit. Through the incarnation of Jesus, the Word made flesh, the immense, all-powerful, all-knowing God who created the universe has become Emmanuel (God-with-us). God’s most profound intervention in human history—and in the lives of each one of us—shows beyond any doubt how much God cares for us.
The fact that Jesus is born so humbly, in a stable surrounded by his loving family and by social outcasts (shepherds) and domestic animals, is a scandal by any human standard. We are conditioned to look for God among the wealthy and powerful, the “important people” who govern our society, who drive our economy and who control institutions of influence such as the media, our businesses, schools, social service and cultural institutions, and, yes, the Church.
But God surprises us. God inverts our values, showing us that the first will be last, the lowly will be raised up, the rich will be sent away empty, and the poor will inherit the Earth and all its treasures.
God’s ways are not our ways. High is low. Rich is poor. Power is service. These are God’s ways, not our ways. Most amazing of all the divine paradoxes is the fact that the all-powerful God comes to us in the absolute vulnerability of a newborn infant, who can do nothing for himself and is completely dependent on the loving care he receives from his mother, Mary, and his foster father, Joseph.
Jesus, who is both divine and human, can be held in the arms of his parents, nursed by his mother, protected by his father, and sheltered from the elements by a mere stable. His life can be threatened by a jealous and cruel despot who slaughters the innocent, and after narrowly escaping and being forced to flee to another country as a homeless refugee, he can return to his native land to “grow in wisdom, age and grace” in a community that nurtures and supports him and his family according to the ancient faith of Israel.
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