Coming into the world

“But if in faith we say, “It is Christmas!” – in faith that is determined, sober, and above all else courageous – then we mean that an event came bursting into our world, into our life, an event that has changed all that we call the world and our life. This event alone has provided a goal and a purpose for everything.”

And what is that event? Recently I met someone for the second time and I discovered that she was a “consecrated person,” someone we would have call “Sister” and known as a nun. But none of this was apparent when I first met her. Then I met a person whom I noticed was focused and interested in serving others. I thought she was one of those many dedicated “lay” people we often meet these days. I was even slightly disappointed to discover she was a “sister”! It, somehow, explained everything and diminished the thrill of meeting a dedicated “ordinary” person!

In other words I knew her first as a person, and only later as a “sister”. Whereas when she first met me she knew immediately I was a priest and then, I suppose, only later she met a “person.” It is one of the exciting things of today that all of us – sisters, priests and popes – try to encounter people on the level of daily experience. Some may have had opportunities to study more and may hold “offices” in the Church but we are all discovering we are on a common journey and there is no “higher” or lower. No one has all the answers, as Pope Francis freely admits. I always remember how St Ignatius, when he was struggling with himself and God at Manresa, “could find no help” from any of the priests he went to. His only consolation was from an old woman – a sort of Anna figure – who spoke words to him that lit up his heart.

So “the event” is the person who came “bursting into our world.” No one had a clue at first that he was much different from anyone else. He revealed himself to people, as it were, from within – within their own hearts, within their own Galilean society and today within our own world. Only gradually did the people of Jesus’ time come to know who he was and what he was doing. “The kingdom of God is within you, among you.” Discover it! Let it burst forth in our world! It will change everything.