St. John the Evangelist Parish

As a child, I had serious issues with the Baby Jesus! Every time I failed in some way, I would be reminded that either The Baby Jesus would never have disappointed His mother in that way! Consequently, I had no problem with the divine nature of Jesus but His human nature was a major stumbling block.

Later, as I read a bit more, I realized that I was not alone struggling with this faith challenge. It appeared that much ‘pious’ literature presented the young Jesus as a miracle worker, generally doing good but occasionally using His ‘powers’ to punish naughty children. Even when I was young I thought Jesus was out of line speaking to His parents the way He did when they found Him in discussion with elders in the Temple!

Why do we humans have such difficulty accepting Jesus as both truly God and truly Human? Perhaps it is the word ‘and’ that is part of the problem. As humans we like to categorize; differentiation into separate groupings feels comfortable, feels clever. We like to put things (and people) where they belong, in their appropriate box. Perhaps it is also that, as humans, we are very conscious of our deficiencies, our contradictions. It seems wrong to associate our weakness with Jesus. After all, Jesus is truly God and God is ‘perfect’, how can Jesus be both our imperfection and God’s perfection in one person?

But it seems to me that humans were never meant to be ‘stand alone’, self-sufficient. Perhaps humans were created to be ‘sufficient in God’s sufficiency’? Perhaps humans were created, as we are, so that the light of God shines through our insufficiency? Interestingly, St. Teresa of Avila talked about God having no hands but ours and no feet but ours. Our purpose on this earth, as exemplified by Jesus, may be to BE LOVE to each other, making God ‘real’ for each other. We are physical beings who need love and caring to be expressed through the physical. God is ‘all in all’ but what does that mean when you are alone, hungry, frightened? It means someone giving you a hug, feeding you, clothing you, giving you space in their life, in their heart. Perhaps we should accept our weakness, relying on God’s Mercy, dependent on God’s Forgiveness, and concentrate our energies on reaching out to others with the love of God that will fill us to the very brim, if we let it!

So what about the Baby Jesus? I would suggest that Jesus was a child like any other, needing love and care, support and boundaries. He grew up learning all the lessons the rest of us need to learn, feeling the same hurts, joys, embarrassments, loneliness etc. However, I suspect that, when Jesus felt love, He passed it on; when He was joyful, He shared the joy; when He had enough and He saw others in want, he shared what He had and it was enough for all. He received with open hands from God and He handed on to His brothers and sisters with open hands. We are all called to do the same.