THE POINT _^[1]

"ISN'T IT STRANGE?"

1.  A freshman student stood in front of the trophy cases in the foyer of his high school. He looked intently at basketball team pictures from the past 40 years. In each photograph the athlete in the middle of the team was holding a basketball identifying the season in which they competed 61-62, 62-63, 64-65, 59-60 etc.

2.  With a puzzled look on his face, the freshman turned to his friend, and he said, "Isn't it strange how the teams always lost by one point?"^[2]  In truth it was the freshman who missed the point. His knowledge of basketball and sports competition was adequate enough--but for the moment, at least, he did not possess a crucial understanding.

3.  Our Catholic Church may appear to be like a trophy case loaded with 20 centuries of Christian trophies, ribbons and citations. Certainly it is an impressive treasury of human history and spiritual knowledge. Yet many Catholics turn away from the splendor of these riches. They spurn opportunities to mature in faith and religion. They want information, not knowledge. They want affirmation, not wisdom.

CRUCIAL UNDERSTANDING

4.  Nevertheless, Christian baptism levies on all members of the Church the crucial work required for becoming fully human: growing in the knowledge of God and living an ethical way of life. God cannot be anything less than absolute, eternal and unchanging. The certitude and the consequence of these attributes obliges man to acknowledge that God's Divine Truth is profound and systematic in the universe. Bearing the image and likeness of God  [cf. Gen 1:26], man is bound to a crucial understanding of his imperfect human nature.

5.  Man possesses an immortal soul; it is impossible, therefore, to reconcile the eternal soul with its merciless enemies--entropy and death. No logical connection exists between growth and entropy, death and eternity. No principle unites good or evil, blessings or corruption. To whom, then, shall we submit? The Creator or the corrupter? One cannot remain indifferent to the question of fealty. If any man fails to prepare for his spiritual reckoning before God in the hour of death, he will have well-prepared himself for eternity iln the company of the corrupter.

LOVE AND HATRED

6.  He will have formalized entropy and death in his life by his indifference to God whose perfection of being sets him above and apart from all creation. The professed friend of God has one thing in common with the declared enemy of God, however. Inevitably both love and hatred require discipleship--every man is known by his works  [cf. Jas 2:24]; no human being can remain indifferent to virtue or vice. The devil will accept anyone whether he is a casual affiliate or his most egregious, loyal henchman. The kingdom of darkness prefers, in fact, to receive souls who contemplate its horror for the first time at the moment of their divine condemnation.

7.  Not so with Jesus Christ who seeks to be in intimate fellowship with his faithful disciples from the very beginning of their conversion: 

IF ANY man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.  For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.  For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life?  Or what shall a man give in return for his life?  For the Son of man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay every man for what he has done.  [Mt 16:24-27] 

FINGER FOOD OR SUBSTANTIAL MEAL?

8.  Growing in the knowledge of God and living an ethical way of life cannot happen by osmosis or accident. If we are to feast on profound and systematic truth, we must resolutely approach the table of God's Word and sacraments and dine with gusto.  Finger food must give way to a substantial meal. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the queen of the sacraments, is not a informal collation supplied with optional appetizers. It is the substantial feast of truth: we are to receive the Word of God and the sacramental mystery of Christ's Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity into the very mystery of our humanity.

9.  The incarnation of Christ marks precisely the field of battle for the hearts and souls of Christian believers. Here the Roman Catholic Church takes its stand against the secularist Western cultures. And it is here that the test of discipleship is proven. Before the seeker of God may serve him, he must entrust his faith to the historical reality of the incarnation and its consanguinity to Christ's passion, death, resurrection and ascension. The Church celebrates--in the Sacraments of Initiation--the believer's submission to the concrete reality of God's intervention into his and the life of the world.

FAITH AND DIVINE IMPRINT

10.  From the beginning, the Christian religion has given no berth to fantasy, nor does it permit the proclamation of its cherished dogma to be reduced to a theory of symbols. Perhaps skeptics are not to be faulted altogether for anthropomorphic concepts of God: the divine imprint in man often proves to be man's greatest obstacle in finding God.^[3]  Nevertheless, it is through a uniquely human attribute, ironically, that man enters into communion with God.

11.  By faith he submits himself to God. By faith he is preserved from disorder and death. By faith he enters the fullness of life. By faith he transcends the stricture of his humanity and surrenders to the wordless mystery of the Divine Will. In faith he receives the Spirit of Truth:  "And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who possess the Spirit."  [1Cor 2:13]  The eternal Logos (Gk. word) took flesh and became man that the man of flesh might receive the Word and gain eternity. Hence Christians should take great care to approach the incarnation of Christ with reverent wonder.

CROSS IT FIRST

12.  The humanity of Christ directs us to the eternity of the Logos. The nuptial relationship of Joseph and Mary directs us to Christ the divine Groom and his Bride the Church. The incarnation of the Word Made Flesh directs us to the resurrection of the dead and immortality. The Spirit of God remedies human perception, correcting man's shortsighted absorption with self and affording him a spiritual prescience to evangelize others. Hence the Christian beholds the mysteries of creation, judgment and redemption with eyes of faith--but he must emulate the championship athlete. The runner who sets the record must first cross the finish line and cross it first:  "...if one sees the event as taking place only on this side of the boundary which separates God and the creature, one has seen and said something which is true, but missed by a hairbreadth and omitted what is really the point...God himself."^[4]  (emphasis added) 

13.  Consider that the tangible realities confronting Mary and Joseph are recounted for our spiritual good. The elements of human drama and the rudimentary shelter in Bethlehem offer an anagogic feast for hungry souls in every generation.  Mary:  "...God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong."  [1Cor 1:27]  The stable:  "God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God." [1Cor 1:28-29]  The manger:  "He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption."  [1Cor 1:30]  The straw:  "...but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise."  [1Cor 1:27]  The magi:  "For the foolishness of God is wiser than men."  [1Cor 1:25]  Herod's rage:  "...the weakness of God is stronger than men."  [1Cor 1:25]  The shepherds:  "For consider your call, brethren; not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth." [1Cor 1:26]  And we must not overlook the angels:  "...therefore, as it is written, 'Let him who boasts, boast of the Lord.'"  [1Cor 1:31] 

SPIRITUAL MATERNITY

14.  Mary's discipleship reconciles the conflict between man's pride and the divine image he bears. She who believed the promises made to her through the angel was herself an instrument of their fulfillment. She loved God who consented to become his magnificat  (Lat. magnificare to magnify, extol), a living hymn of sanctity and service to the Father:  "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden. For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed."  [Lk 1:46-48]  Belief in the Spirit of God leads all generations of men and women of good will to the sanctity of Mary, ever-unequaled among human beings for her love of God and humble surrender to his will.

15.  To proclaim Mary blessed is to acknowledge her human maternity of the Divine Logos by the Spirit's power--it is to acknowledge her spiritual maternity over the Church. Through Mary, all men and women may approach Christ in confidence born of humble service:  "Do whatever he tells you."  [Jn 2:5]  Thus the human cry for justice is heard and answered. And we who are in need of the Divine Physician  [cf. Mt 9:12-13], who lament our sins and seek the righteousness of God, will be given what we are due from the treasury of the Father's love. Homeless children, weep for justice in the sight of God! The unborn cry out for justice in the hour of abortion!

O CHILD OF GOD!

16.  Abandoned wives and mothers, implore God to give them the justice owed to their humanity. Parents, beg God to liberate their children from the injustice of promiscuity, drugs, gangs and recklessness. Liberate us, O Lord, from the Prince of Evil and all his pestilential works! Free us from fear! Free us from indifference to the world's suffering! All humanity born of Eve may find in Mary, spouse of Joseph of the House of David, a mother's love. She whom the Holy Spirit visited conceived in her womb; she shares her motherhood with the Church.

17.  O Child of God, are you sorrowing? Entrust yourself to our Blessed Mother's love. O Child of God, are you suffering? Stand with Mary at the foot of the cross. O Child, have you lost all hope? Mary, apostle of the Spirit, will lead you to her Son. Prayer is the universal language of all who believe. Imitate Mary's discipleship  [cf. Lk 1:46-55], and glorify the Lord. Have you need of a mother's intercession? Surrender to God, kneel before him in prayer, and she will join you! Rejoice in Christ who has delivered you from this present faithless generation. He will bestow on you his powerful blessings, the proof of his merciful love.

AD ORIENTUM

18.  The Lord satisfies his people's hunger. He helps them; their names will never be forgotten.  Christ will give his inheritance to all who hold out with him to the end:  "Be faithful unto death", says the Lord, "and I will give you the crown of life."  [Rev 2:10]  The foolish man denies the reality of anything that exceeds the reach of his own grasp. He will never know God because he trusts only himself. The man of God, however, "may comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God."  [Eph 3:18-19]  

19.  If you consider deeply the mystery of God, if you cross in spirit the boundary that separates God and man, you are situated ad orientum   (Lat. to the east)  to the light of dawn and the assurance of your salvation. Now, then, the point of our meditation is clear. Mary was very young when the angel Gabriel announced God's intention that she would be the human mother of his eternally begotten Son, the divine Logos. Though Mary's comprehension of God's plan was imperfect at the outset--she was disturbed by the archangel's proclamation  [cf. Lk 1:29]--her submission was perfectly formed:  "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word."  [Lk 1:38]