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A gift from a God we hardly even knew.

Director’s Reflection

Dear Companions on the Journey,

Here’s another way of looking at the Advent/Christmas miracle, from Methodist Bishop William Willimon:

“We prefer to think of ourselves as givers – powerful, competent, self-sufficient, capable people whose goodness motivates us to employ some of our power, competence, and gifts to benefit the less fortunate.  Which is a direct contradiction of the biblical account of the first Christmas.  There we are portrayed not as the givers we wish we were but as the receivers we are.  Luke and Matthew go to great lengths to demonstrate that we – with our power, generosity, competence and capabilities – had little to do with God’s work in Jesus.  God wanted to do something for us so strange, so utterly beyond the bounds of human imagination, so foreign to human projections, that God had to resort to angels, pregnant virgins, and stars in the sky to get it done.  We didn’t think of it, understand it, or approve it.  All we could do, at Bethlehem, was receive it.  A gift from a God we hardly even knew.”

What do you think?
And let us pray for/with one another.
Michael
The Paulist Center