A Passover to Bethlehem

Many moments of passing over from one stage of life to another is known to us. A kind of passing over is required also for the ways we expect the divine presence. We expect god to be present in glory and power. But how have we experienced that presence in our lives? We have felt the presence not in glorious clouds or royal thrones, but in absolute tenderness that God offered in kindness mercy and freshness of life.

The Gospel of Blessedness

The newness of the gospel is the message that the countless blessings are poured over us. Every one who is open for it, deserves that blessedness. All those who may be weeping, burdened, persecuted, hungry, judged to be cursed, all are blessed, and graciousness is poured upon them. To lead them into this reality is the duty of a guide. Many things we made for the sake of clarity were actually binding us within their own boundaries. These definitions call our attention today, because these are the very explanations on which we base our reflections about our life and forget, or even reject totally the great blesssedness in us. the tenderness of the 'Messiah' is to free from these binding beliefs and definitions. We are, of course, in need of growth, yet how much more are we already in the state of having been accepted and blessed by God. Jesus raised his listeners with such a confidence that that they are blessed by the heavenly Father, not a cursed and condemned species. Actually the traditions mishandled people reinforcing such beliefs in the pretexts of religious definitions.For Jesus they were all the children of God, the sick, the sinners, the prostitutes, the dead, the widow ... 

The Passover to Bethlehem 

Promises find their fulfilment in our life in many different ways. The Holy Spirit filled Mary completely, especially her heart and womb. The same Spirit will sanctify all human situations. It is important to take a moment of pass over here seriously. This passing over is not for expecting miracles, nor for making possible something that is impossible, but to see the nobility of the ordinariness of our lives. When we imagine of God out of our everyday reality, in reality God is present where we have least expected. The Word that dwells in the heart of us throbs to incarnate in our own humanness. The truth is that we have not taken seriously our own humanity and the worth of it. Perhaps,we have distanced ourselves from our humanness and the soil on which we have set our foot. It is to take birth in our humanity the Word became flesh. Man, woman or transgender, sick, weak, or caring for the sick, we are in our humanity as word became flesh. For sure, Bethlehem presents this fact as a challenge, to keep away all highness and glory and seek what is really human.

Possible Tragedy in Bethlehem

Those who came to Bethlehem were not of any definitions. Once one ties oneself with ideals and definitions, a spontaneous response is impossible when a possible revelation is available in our tangible realities. those who rejoice at the manger are those who revered the sacredness around without binding it under any structure, and those who realised that cultures must not close us within. The imaginative belief of the shepherds would have been related to the care that they who themselves are weak, give to the sheep, and to the feeling of the security the sheep would feel. The wise man reached there seeking the inner radiance beyond nation and culture. The revelation we receive in being in our own humanity is deeper than authority, power and knowledge. The more the definitions the more the boundaries.  At the manger, they also lack definitions along with power and knowledge. This absence makes them capable of welcoming each other at the manger. There is no religion, culture, nationality to define who they are. There is a child "born for you." Every situation where one is for the other there is a manifestation of incarnated care and concern. There one cannot become an icon to be honoured or even worshipped, they must empty themselves. It is the blessedness that is offered to us that we feel in every gesture of kindness through many unknown hands.

We must be kind enough to ourselves to return to the simplicity of Bethlehem. Wherever we generously give and receive humbly, there resounds the incarnate form of the word in reality in our own flesh. May The Emmanuel, The Word made Flesh enable us to take birth into such a freedom.