Christmas. A visible sign of a true Reality

NOW that I have a full church and a captive audience, we are going to have a Catholic Religious Education class…somewhat.  A definition, the best definition that I can think of, although there are a couple of others, A, the Best definition of a Sacrament is…A visible sign of an invisible reality. I will repeat, A visible sign of an Invisible reality…now you repeat it back…

Catholics have this wonderful theology, this spirituality of sacraments. When we ponder sacraments more and more, this spirituality gives us an amazing concept about life, the world and us. We can even understand our connection to God at a deeper level.

What our definition of Sacraments tells us is that within our reality of senses; taste, smell, feel, touch, hear…there is also a reality underneath it all that sustains it; an invisible but yet very, very potent invisible reality that becomes known through visible signs.

Baptism we use water and the words “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son and the Holy Spirit.” to signify, to call us to realize that God is present pouring life into us; pouring grace into us, so that we can become and truly be the persons God created us to be. We are God’s children.  We too as persons have that invisible reality: we as persons are in reality Children of God. Our visible bodies signify the invisible reality of who we are, or are at least to. We humans are sacramental.

This is an utterly positive view of humanity that we as Catholic Christians have. Humanity has at our core the potential to be amazing because we are Children of God!  Now I am not talking like a Marvel Superhero with powers to shoot lasers out of our eyes. No, our powers are even better. Our powers, or power, is to love, to work with God and create a better world. Our power is to be as God, not God, but as God.

Our power is that we believe in the inherent goodness of ourselves and all, and we visibly express this goodness in all that we do and say.

Our power is that we rely on God, and no other thing nor person, and not even our own self for our very being. This power is our freedom.

Christmas helps us to remember this, and to live it out. Christmas signifies this reality.  God becomes human. Not like a costume or God did not cosplay being human. God in every sense of the word God becomes fully human in Jesus Christ. This tells us right away, our humanity is worthy.  God does not simply appear as human. God, the Son of God, gestates in the womb of a woman, Mary. The Son of God will be born, in all its wonder and all its messiness. Telling us that we humans are meant to be life givers, bringers of the divine into our world. Telling us that all life is indeed precious and to be respected because of the potential that exists within all.  God, whose being is being without time, enters into the world of time and space; also telling us this world is good. There is potential for good in this world.

We must hold onto this!

Let’s go back to Genesis, God created male and female in God’s own image. Here it is, our reality! Then male and female were tempted to not believe this, to believe they could operate better without…they rejected their own reality, and the consequence was that sin, death and chaos entered into the world.

We know the pressures of this world; the temptation to believe in a bad world and therefore our inclination is to escape or ignore it.  We know there is the contradiction, the same temptation to think that we make our own reality, and the pitfall and chaos that comes with that philosophy.

Yet, we can look out into our world, our community, our homes, our schools and see signs of goodness everywhere. We can witness the goodness within being made real in this world.

This parish community and that includes our school, this past year has collected coats, socks, food, for those in need. This parish community donated generously to help those in other parts of the United States and World who struggle simply to maintain the basics. This parish community has opened its doors and welcomed new families moving into the area, into the parish. We see Catholic Charities the largest provider of services in Northern Nevada. There are the silent yet many, many volunteers helping in aid groups, throughout our city and state, working to improve the lives of others; to show them their inherent dignity.

My favorite tiktoks, ones that get me emotionally, are those with humans being kinds to one another. I was watching one recently, a Step Dad unwrapping presents from five kids of his wife. They all wrote him notes too explaining how he had become a real dad to them. They ended the note with a request that he formally adopt them. He was tears (and so was I).

Yes, at times we struggled with that all, but with Jesus Christ as our example, as our teacher, as our savior, we have persevered, and we have moved forward.

Jesus reminds us of our potential, our capacity for such goodness, such generosity, such patience.  The world does need us. Not to impose our ways on it; but to inspire the world to see differently, think differently, act differently. 

We as humans, we signify the beauty of humanity, the beauty of believing in God and having God as our source of being, we offer to the world a better, more holy way to live.  We make real God’s love in our love for others. We make real God’s mercy by forgiving others and accepting forgiveness ourselves. We make real God’s compassion by our hospitality, our patience, our kindness to others.

Jesus did that in his ministry. He never imposed, but he simply invited and encouraged. He showed us our potential in the Resurrection, and the potential for the world.  We remember this all and celebrate this all in our eucharist, the great sacrament in which the love, the grace, the power of God and God’s great sacrifice is made visible in simple bread and wine, given to us to consume. We remember that we too, in our simple way, have that same capacity within us to be as Christ, to be truly as a Child of God.

What a reality to live and experience.