 With the celebration of Christ's entrance into our world still echoing and the anticipation of His dying and rising at Easter still to come, these interim weeks of winter are a good time to be guided by St. Ignatius' meditation on the Nativity.
During the second week of the Spiritual Exercises, Ignatius asks us to take note of the hardships present in the world around the time of Jesus' birth. Ignatius describes Christ's path from Bethlehem to Calvary and beyond this way: "The labors of the journey to Bethlehem, the struggles of finding a shelter, the poverty, hunger, thirst, heat, and cold, the insults which meet the arrival of God with us - all this that He might die on the cross for me."
Jesus came to be with us in a hurting, suffering world permeated by conflict and division, a world hungering for justice. In many ways, that world continues to exist today. But just as Jesus' disciples found hope in His presence, so too can we find hope in His presence.
From the beginning, Jesus broke into the darkness to bring light and clarity. Some witnessed to Jesus' being the light; one even recognized Him before His birth. When Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth and she heard Mary's greeting, Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed the blessedness of this child. Guided by the message of the angels, the shepherds made their way to the manger and, as Luke tells us, "Once they saw, they understood what had been told them concerning this child." Finally, the three wise men, following a star, journeyed to learn more about the special child, and, on finding Him, "prostrated themselves and did Him homage."
Still, after His birth, Jesus dwelled in a place of darkness, a land of suffering people. Matthew sees Jesus' arrival as fulfilling the promise of liberation foretold by Isaiah, and the gospels tell of people who recognized Jesus' saving presence through His compassion for the sick and afflicted, and His exorcism of demons.
All these examples are moments of epiphany, in which we suddenly see, recognize, and understand the saving presence of Jesus Christ in our midst - moments when things seem to come together for us, moments when darkness, pain, and sorrow are somehow transformed into hope and greater understanding.
How do we recognize these moments as manifestations of Jesus Christ? First, we stay awake and look vigilantly in our daily lives for Christ who is laboring for us and transforming all of life - whether in times of brokenness like the suffering of a friend or in times of joy like the birth of a child.
The late poet William Stafford wrote, "I'm saved in this big world by unforeseen friends, or times when only a glance from a passenger beside me, or just the tired branch of a willow inclining toward earth, may teach me how to join earth and sky." Such epiphany moments are all around us if we only stay awake to recognize them.
Second, we look for these moments in the love between persons. John attests in his first letter that we recognize Christ when we love another person or when another person loves us. We know Christ lives in each of us. As bearers of Christ for others, we can help others walk the way of peace.
We can bring Christ into the darkness of other people's lives often in very simple ways and, sometimes, when we don't even realize we're doing it.
We image Christ by being kind - by providing a meal for a family who has lost a loved one, by sitting with the kid at school who is by himself, by calling a friend who is struggling, by going to a nursing home to visit an elderly man who has no family, by encouraging a son or daughter who feels defeated.
Bringing Christ to Bethlehem was the point of Mary and Joseph's journey there 2000 years ago.
Bringing Christ to our neighbors is the point of our journey through life today.
This is the work Ignatius challenges us to do in the ordinary time between Christmas and Easter.
To contact Fr. Bayard, write him at: Gesu Parish,
PO Box 495, Milwaukee, WI 53201-0495
Telephone: 414-288-7101
e-mail: msbayard@hotmail.com
|
