Priests called to live the mystery of Incarnation

Priests called to live the mystery of Incarnation - S.J.Emmanuel

(To priests of Jaffna deanery,St.Johns church, Jaffna ( 7.2.19)

Every year we Christians celebrate two great mysteries of our faith with a long period of preparation - the mystery of Incarnation (Advent to Christmas) and the mystery of Pascha (Lenten to Easter).

For us priests it is no exaggeration to say that these are the epicentres of our priestly life and ministry. Here for the time being I will limit my thoughts to the first, namely – Incarnation, and reserve my thoughts on the Paschal Mystery for another occasion.

Our Helplessness in facing the Challenges of Incarnation as well as those of our people can only be overcome by our frequent Eucharistic chat  

1.     There is no better news for the whole of humanity as the good news of God becoming a man! And among the human beings some of us are called as priests in a special way to announce this mystery by our word, life and ministry!

God becoming truly man is a mystery that goes beyond the bounds of Christianity as a religion, as an institution beyond the church.

His vision and mission goes beyond the church into God’s Kingdom

Jesus came to reveal God’s plan of salvation  through the coming of God’s  Kingdom.  An almighty God beyond the limits of space and time entered into our space and time and creates a historical event on this earth in Judea Bethlehem about 2000 years ago.

Belief in a God or in a super-human supreme Force behind all creation (as expressed by a renowned scientist like Albert Einstein), is part of most of the religions, except for so called religions like Buddhism.

God appearing as a human being (avathara) is also found in other religions.

But God truly Becoming Man is specifically a Christian belief.

As catholic priests we are called, our vocation is a response to this challenge of God becoming man and forus to become divine to announce this good news of God, not only by word but more so by our life and ministry.

Our becoming priests is our  response to become divine, not merely by handling things divine like His Word, or the Eucharist, but more by our life-style and service. What a super/human challenge!

1.     Announcing Incarnation in our life.

Announcing through life is the most difficult part of our call to be priests. For example Jesus had revealed

God his and our Father, as loving and merciful to fellow humans, as helping and healing the weak and the suffering.

How are we going to announce that there is a loving God, a merciful Father, a giver and healer of life?

2.     The sermons we preach to a passive Sunday audience and the lessons we teach as catechism  can do very little to make people experience in us priests the love, mercy and healing touch of God, when we fail to build into our own personality the values Jesus taught by his life.  

In other words, the priestly responsibility to live these values demand that we become a genuine and rich human personality radiating love, concern, mercy and healing force to all who come into contact with us.

This is a call to become strong human Persons in the image of Jesus Christ. 

This has not to do with what we have gathered as knowledge and techniques but to do with our character, with our human formation as basis and spring-board for actions. As Erich Fromm illustrates in his book To Have or To Be, all that we acquire as preparation for our life as priests are secondary to what we become with their help.

We should not measure our personality by what we posses or have acquired. Our Talents, our education our intelligence our academic qualifications and our titles as bishops, pastors, directors and rectors etc. may be necessary and are chances but are secondary to our human stature. Often we make the mistake of assuming that our title, our office, our degrees, our talents  and our appearance make up our personality and success.

They can only help but not become the essence of our personality.

From the time we are called, we go through years of reflection, preparatory studies, human and spiritual formations. In a seminary it can happen that a great part of time is spent on philosophical and theological studies, as well as learning the modes and techniques of a priestly-spirituality and clerical life-style.

It can happen that our human nature and qualities still retain those weaknesses unbecoming of a good human being.

We should not be deceived that greater learning of the sciences, the longer period of training and complying with the rules and regulations of a priestly life will automatically make us all a good human being close to our Guru Jesus Christ.

Looking at the mirror of the Gospels where Jesus is portrayed in his humanity, we can learn a lot about the humanness of Jesus, about his preferential love for the weak and the sinner and for his courageous stance for the victims of injustice in society and in religion.

3.     . Announcing Incarnation in our ministry

In order to embrace and live this mystery in our lives, it is necessary to go a little deeper into the fact of God becoming one among us and living among us with His healing presence.

Fourth evangelist shows us the way.  Unlike the first three Evangelists who dwelt on the events around the birth of Christ, John after long meditation and deeper insight into the act of creation and incarnation write his Prologue as the corner stone of our faith. God not only created everything by speaking the fiat, but his Word became flesh.

In other words God became man. What is I am called to become?Challenge of my vocation to be a priest among people?

Hence let us not loose ourselves in the big celebrations taking place in the world as mere occasions to celebrate, but to turn to the contextual realities of God becoming man.

1.     Mary as a believing woman with a child in her womb,

2.     Joseph called to  accept this mysterious situation,

3.     Joseph and Mary as refugees, seeking shelter,

4.     good news given first to simple shepherds –

these are pointers for our ministries not only around Christmas but also in our daily services. Focussing attention of our people on the suffering and the needy in our surroundings, visiting these in solidarity and with help, must take more time than decorating the church and the cribs or sending wishes to others. We spend sometimes far too much in making up our liturgies inside our churches, but let go the chances to serve those in need.

5.    The key question is how we are called to incarnate ourselves into the context of a people whom we want to serve in the name of God and His son Jesus Christ?

God becoming man, to reconcile man to God, to restore his original dignity in the image of God and to make him a child of God, calls us to stand up for restoring the human dignity, human rights of our fellow-human-beings. I n this respect, we Tamil catholic priests have a heavy responsibility to take an active role in the human liberation of our people.

Similarly in relation to their needs /  poverty, sickness, sinfulness, ……..

Returning to Sri Lanka, after 21 years, I can easily notice the vast changes which have taken place in our Tamil society as a consequence of the long war.

The dead we can count the properties we may rebuild but the invisible values of morality discipline order as well as poverty and homelessness etc.

We cannot dismiss them as mere mistakes of the war or the govt or of politicians.

We who are called to be other Jesus today among them what is our response?

6.     Challenges of Reality Vs our Helplessness

Before this challenge of incarnation to become like Jesus in his humanness,

And before the challenge of the needs of the people around us, What is our response?

One response is to securely sit within the institution of the church, doing my duties assigned by the bishop, celebrate regularly masses and feasts for the people etc and be satisfied. That is taking refuge inside the church that came after Jesus as an institution many many years after Jesus left us.

The true response to answering the challenge of incarnation to become like Jesus and the challeng of the needs of our people,

is acknowledging our helplessness before Him who knows us and called us

7.     Frequent Eucharistic chat

It is in this context, of our helplessness, weaknesses, etc. comes the response of Jesus Himself going through the Paschal mystery and giving us His flesh and blood to overcome our helplessness.

Jesus knew that for us human beings, it is difficult to become divine or to have his humanness of compassion mercy love of the poor..

Hence the Word that became flesh and blood in Jesus, offers that same flesh and blood to overcome our helplessness.

8.     In conclusion, my dear Fathers, I will exhort you as one of your brothers,

1.     to reflect on the humanness that is needed to be lived and served in our priestly life.

2.     Our education, formation and God-given talents must help us to become strong personalities to announce the happiest news for humanity

3.     To accept &  reflect on the helplessness before the challenges – to become like Jesus and also to face the challenges of our people.

4.     Turn to the Eucharist as often as we can, to communicate with him in the tabernacle. Celebration masses and feast, reciting our formal prayers are important, but cannot replace our personal chat with Him in the Eucharist.