Two Legged Thanks Giving

"Children are grateful when Santa Claus puts in their stockings gifts of toys or sweets. Could I not be grateful to Santa Claus when he put in my stockings the gift of two miraculous legs?"

- Chesterton

God Leaps Out Of The Frame

"Said a boy of missionary parents attending school in this country as he looked at a picture of his father. “I want my father to step out of that frame.” 

That's exactly what God did for is in Christ. He steps out of the frame of the universe and comes to us personally, intimately. This is the Truth which Christians celebrate at Christmas."

- William (Bill) Weale. Charlottetown. 

He Will Always Be God With Us.

"...because despite mans repeated "no", God constantly says "yes". He will always be God-with-us."

Pope Francis. Homily at the Christmas Eve Mass in St. Peter's Basilica, 2018.

The Christmas Story Up And Down

The Christmas Story

“In the Christian story God descends to re-ascend. He comes down…down to the very roots and sea-bed of the Nature he has created. But He goes down to come up again and bring the whole ruined world up with Him.”

~ C.S. Lewis

The Flip-Flop Incarantion Of Jesus

“Man’s maker was made man, that He, Ruler of the stars, might nurse at His mother’s breast;
that the Bread might hunger,
the Fountain thirst,
the Light sleep,
the Way be tired on its journey;
that the Truth might be accused of false witness,
the Teacher be beaten with whips,
the Foundation be suspended on wood;
that Strength might grow weak;
that the Healer might be wounded;
that Life might die.”

~ Augustine

Concentrating Too Much On Special Times

In response to their question "When(time) will the Kingdom come?" He tells them that Ultimate Reality is not here and not there, taking us away from our typical attachment to time. For the Ultimate Reality is "within you!" (Luke 17:21). If you let people concentrate too much on special times, feasts, services, and Seasons, they forget it is always now and here when God happens. They stop living in the naked now and wait for Christmas or Easter, Sunday morning, or some far-off future day of Enlightenment (see Colossians 2:16-19).

Then Jesus makes the identical point about place. When they ask, "Where should we look for the day of the coming?" He says don't look here and don't look there (Luke 17 23). Once you over localize God's action in one place, church service, Sacrament, or any other kind of event, we can easily conclude that it is not in another place - or even worse, that it is not available everywhere and all of the time.

In revitalizing both time and space, Jesus is doing something similar to Eckhart Tolle is doing for many today with his "power of now." He makes us look for the absolute in a different way than by "certain ideas." Any good spiritual teacher has to overcome both space and time, or they have no ability to give you a sense of the Eternal and the Really Real. I would in fact say this is essential. Poor spiritual teaching is always saying only here and only there, such as "only in my church". Good spiritual teaching is saying "always" and "everywhere."

- Richard Rohr. The Naked Now. 

No more Preaching, Now Incarnation

"He deeply desired for them to come back in a relational sense as sons, daughters, friends, and family members, but He knew that the hardness of heart and the hardness of life would make it impossible for them to see Him clearly or find a clear path back to Him. Sending prophets—or in our vernacular, preaching harder—wouldn’t get it done anymore.  People had lost their ear for truth and couldn’t stomach any more baseless religion. Proclamation had run its course. Incarnation was now His only play."

(Hugh Halter. Flesh)