Teilhard de Chardin ( 1881-1955), a deceased Jesuit priest was a scientist, priest, anthropologist, and mystic. He spent most of his years ministering to the people of China. One time he was asked why so many good, sincere people did’t believe in God. In a very understanding way, he said he thought it was because they must not have heard about God in the right way.
Chardin thought that Christmas—the feast of the Incarnation—where God becomes a human person as an infant, was was the right way to learn about God. He thought this was so important for us because if we could understand this, then it would make God more attractive to us and then, we would want to follow his way more closely. For Chardin, Christmas manifests God’s infinite love for us that never changes. Always fresh and new. He never gets tired of us.
What a wonderful gift this is—God becoming human, like one of us. In recent years, there has been an ongoing theological discussion about the humanity of Jesus. How much did Jesus know about himself? When He was born did He know everything? Most theologians say probably not. Rather, as the Scriptures tell us, “He grew in wisdom and knowledge,” and “He was like us in all things but sin.” In other words, He grew into himself. He grew—like we do—into his understanding of what it meant to become more human. And, in this process, He was living out his divinity.
The process is the same for us. We too, like Jesus, are constantly growing into a better understanding of ourselves—of what it means to be human and in the process we are growing into becoming more like Jesus. And Chardin thought we were growing in our humanness every time we act like Jesus because, as he says in his book, The Divine Milieu, we can find Him everywhere—in everything. All creation is divine.
What might this mean for us this Christmas? Let me suggest three things. 1) Chardin thought that Christmas was so important because it shows us that in the infant Jesus, his love is always fresh, always new. God never gives up on us. He never gets tired of us. And even though we each have our own struggles and become tired at times, it is so encouraging to know that Jesus never tires of us even as we try to grow in our own humanness. As one writer says, we are all “unfinished symphonies,” or “a work in progress.” As the prayer of an elderly country gentleman says, “O Lord, I ain’t what I ought to be, and I ain’t what I’m gonna be, but, thanks be to You, I ain’t what I used to be.” 2) Just as Jesus grew in understanding himself by living his life in a certain way, so we too grow in our own humanness by the way we try to live based on his teachings. So, every time we are kind to someone, every time we are more loving, every time we are more patient, every time we share something of ourselves, every time we forgive or ask for forgiveness, every time we try to help someone in some way, every time we work for peace and justice, every time we try to console someone, etc., we are growing in our own humanity and becoming more like Jesus. 3) Chardin also thought that our world was divine—a divine milieu, and that Christmas—the feast of the Incarnation—was a reminder of this. All creation is divine. This can be difficult to see and remember with everything that goes on in our world. But just as Christmas reminds us that God never gets tired of each of us, that He never gives up on us, so it is also true that He never gives up on his own creation. And although we can become disheartened with the way things are in our world at times, his love for all creation is ever fresh and new. It encourages us to never give up on our world too.
Many of the Scripture readings of the Advent season leading up to Christmas are from the prophet Isaiah. In one place, he talks about this new creation that God is always trying to bring about. Listen to Isaiah’s words: “then, the wolf shall be the guest of the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; the calf and the young lion shall browse together with a little child to guide them. The cow and the bear shall be neighbors, together their young shall rest; the lion shall eat hay like the ox. The baby shall play by the cobra’s den. . . .There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the Lord.”
Perhaps during these days, we can thank the Lord for becoming one of us, renew our efforts to become more human, and rejoice that God never gives up on us or our world.
I would love to hear any thoughts you might have on what this Christmas means to you. Have a wonderful Christmas and a New Year filled with many blessings.
–Peter
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