Memorial of Sts. Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen, Bishops and Doctors of the Church
In the movie 500 Days of Summer, a woman asks the sad sack protagonist why he became a greeting card writer when he had trained as an architect. He sardonically replied, “I figured, why make something temporary like a building, when I can make something like a greeting card that lasts forever.” The cutting irony is evident.
There are hard things in this world, like rock – the identity that the Lord gave to Simon when he said he would be His Peter, the rock upon which He would firmly establish His Church. When asked who he is, John the Baptist says he is simply a voice. Even an opera singer’s voice that is powerful enough to shatter glass still fades.
However, Jesus Christ is also revealed to us as the Eternal Word taken on flesh. If a voice is fragile then a word is even more puny. It is a diminishing return of power from voice to word. Nonetheless, through this Word the universe was created!
The logic of the Kingdom of Heaven inverts our own. Those things that appear weak in our world are strong in spiritual plane. “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” (Matt. 24:35). Therefore, “If what you heard from the beginning remains in you, then you will remain in the Son and in the Father,” says St. John. Faith comes through hearing and faith is credited to us as righteousness (cf. Rom. 4:5). This Christmas Season when the invisible God became visible to us, it is revealed that this voice, this word, this faith will lead to the most permanent thing for us: eternal life.
Reflection by Fr. Pachomius Meade, OSB
Posted in Articles for Christmas, Daily Reflections