(ANTI)-POWER POINT PRESENTATION

 

Fr. Mervyn Carapiet

If angels are spirits without lungs and vocal cords, how could they sing?  If sheep are returned before nightfall to the sheepfolds and their owners, what were the shepherds doing at night unless they were thugs waiting to pounce on their next hapless traveler or a lost Roman soldier? And that super star that moved across the sky for the benefit of the Magi (astrologers, for you) should have caused earthquakes and tsunamis, not to speak of the disruption of gravity in the Milky Way. That mysteriously impregnated teenager, named Mary, must have been a very learned girl to declaim the world shattering “Mag-nificat” all in one go on arrival, breathless, after the 100-mile journey from Nazareth to Ain Karem.
 The solidly historical fact and absolutely infallible truth is that the Second Person of the Holy Trinity assumed human nature in the womb of a virgin by a direct divine in-tervention, and was born into a family with a particular culture. God is now man forever. That alone is cause for rejoicing and encouragement. And this God chose this greatest of events to happen in circumstances of utmost material poverty and deprivation, so that on-ly those who are poor and deprived would experience the mystery. A profound wisdom learned of poverty.  We prefer to be in control. We are comfortable with our investments and dividends, bright packages and fine dresses. We do not want to be broken and emp-ty.  Yet the emotional thrills and material tinsel do not properly belong to the essence of the mystery; they are no more than the accidental outcropping of the event.
  You cannot preach the Gospel from the strong to the weak. You can only preach the Gospel from the weak to the strong. The Virgin Mother is one with those who are too poor to offer anything but themselves – the total gift of the self that takes back nothing. How true the sentiments of the “Magnificat”, the great song about our gracious God, the song about God turning the world on its head. The values (rather, disvalues) of power and wealth must come tumbling down as the condition for perceiving the joy of the event. Our dispossessed brothers and sisters, driven from their homes into the forest, starved and exposed to the cold, would discover the God of their heart and the heart of their God who has nothing to give but himself, whose glory is neither black nor white but pure transparency in which they would also understand that the Christian vocation is one of light and joy, not of dust and gloom. It is about the God who saves us in the midst of the worst. It tells us that when the worst happens the best happens as well. He comes and walks among our ruins and heals us and comes to life in us. And that is why we can sing for joy. “Break out in song, O ruins of Jerusalem.”
 The woman of the “Magnificat” knew very well that those whom God honours are not always extolled by the world around them. She knew that the triumphal reversal she sang about is not always apparent to people who mistake their worldly enjoyment, political victories and financial empires for divine blessings. She knew all about remaining faithful to God whilst the extent of her devotion and sacrifice went unrecognized by those around her. The woman whom we extol as the most famous on earth has much to teach us about quiet, unnoticed and self-sacrificial discipleship in a world that sets so much store by reputation and self-esteem.
 Once we grasp the core of the event and its meaning, it matters little how the an-gels sang what, how the shepherd/thugs heard what, and how the astrologers (if any) made it to Bethlehem. But blessed are the poor for they shall see God.

Fr. Mervyn Carapiet,
St. Thomas’ Church,
Kolkata 700 071.
8th. January 2009