JESUS, A MYTH?

JESUS CHRIST, A MYTH?

Is Jesus a myth? Is Jesus just a copy of the pagan gods of other ancient religions? Answer: There are a number of people claiming that the accounts of Jesus as recorded in the New Testament are simply myths borrowed from pagan folklore, such as the stories of Osiris, Dionysus, Adonis, Attis, and Mithras. The claim is that these myths are essentially the same story as the New Testament’s narrative of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. As Dan Brown claims in The Da Vinci Code, “Nothing in Christianity is original.” To discover the truth about the claim that the Gospel writers borrowed from mythology, it is important to (1) unearth the history behind the assertions, (2) examine the actual portrayals of the false gods being compared to Christ, (3) expose any logical fallacies being made, and (4) look at why the New Testament Gospels are trustworthy depictions of the true and historical Jesus Christ. The claim that Jesus was a myth or an exaggeration originated in the writings of liberal German theologians in the nineteenth century. They essentially said that Jesus was nothing more than a copy of popular dying-and-rising fertility gods in various places—Tammuz in Mesopotamia, Adonis in Syria, Attis in Asia Minor, and Horus in Egypt. Of note is the fact that none of the books containing these theories were taken seriously by the academics of the day. The assertion that Jesus was a recycled Tammuz, for example, was investigated by contemporary scholars and determined to be completely baseless. It has only been recently that these assertions have been resurrected, primarily due to the rise of the Internet and the mass distribution of information from unaccountable sources. This leads us to the next area of investigation—do the mythological gods of antiquity really mirror the person of Jesus Christ? As an example, the Zeitgeist movie makes these claims about the Egyptian god Horus: • He was born on December 25 of a virgin: Isis Mary • A star in the East proclaimed his arrival • Three kings came to adore the newborn “savior” • He became a child prodigy teacher at age 12 • At age 30 he was “baptized” and began a “ministry” • Horus had twelve “disciples” • Horus was betrayed • He was crucified • He was buried for three days • He was resurrected after three days However, when the actual writings about Horus are competently examined, this is what we find: • Horus was born to Isis; there is no mention in history of her being called “Mary.” Moreover, “Mary” is our Anglicized form of her real name, Miryam or Miriam. “Mary” was not even used in the original texts of Scripture. • Isis was not a virgin; she was the widow of Osiris and conceived Horus with Osiris. • Horus was born during month of Khoiak (Oct/Nov), not December 25. Further, there is no mention in the Bible as to Christ’s actual birth date. • There is no record of three kings visiting Horus at his birth. The Bible never states the actual number of magi that came to see Christ. • Horus is not a “savior” in any way; he did not die for anyone. • There are no accounts of Horus being a teacher at the age of 12. • Horus was not “baptized.” The only account of Horus that involves water is one story where Horus is torn to pieces, with Isis requesting the crocodile god to fish him out of the water. • Horus did not have a “ministry.” • Horus did not have 12 disciples. According to the Horus accounts, Horus had four demigods that followed him, and there are some indications of 16 human followers and an unknown number of blacksmiths that went into battle with him. • There is no account of Horus being betrayed by a friend. • Horus did not die by crucifixion. There are various accounts of Horus’ death, but none of them involve crucifixion. • There is no account of Horus being buried for three days. • Horus was not resurrected. There is no account of Horus coming out of the grave with the body he went in with. Some accounts have Horus/Osiris being brought back to life by Isis and then becoming the lord of the underworld. When compared side by side, Jesus and Horus bear little, if any, resemblance to one another. Jesus is also compared to Mithras by those claiming that Jesus Christ is a myth. All the above descriptions of Horus are applied to Mithras (e.g., born of a virgin, being crucified, rising in three days, etc.). But what does the Mithras myth actually say? • He was born out of a solid rock, not from any woman. • He battled first with the sun and then with a primeval bull, thought to be the first act of creation. Mithras killed the bull, which then became the ground of life for the human race. • Mithras’s birth was celebrated on December 25, along with winter solstice. • There is no mention of his being a great teacher. • There is no mention of Mithras having 12 disciples. The idea that Mithras had 12 disciples may have come from a mural in which Mithras is surrounded by the twelve signs of the zodiac. • Mithras had no bodily resurrection. Rather, when Mithras completed his earthly mission, he was taken to paradise in a chariot, alive and well. The early Christian writer Tertullian did write about Mithraic cultists re-enacting resurrection scenes, but this occurred well after New Testament times, so if any copycatting was done, it was Mithraism copying Christianity. More examples can be given of Krishna, Attis, Dionysus, and other mythological gods, but the result is the same. In the end, the historical Jesus portrayed in the Bible is unique. The alleged similarities of Jesus’ story to pagan myths are greatly exaggerated. Further, while tales of Horus, Mithras, and others pre-date Christianity, there is very little historical record of the pre-Christian beliefs of those religions. The vast majority of the earliest writings of these religions date from the third and fourth centuries A.D. To assume that the pre-Christian beliefs of these religions (of which there is no record) were identical to their post-Christian beliefs is naive. It is more logical to attribute any similarities between these religions and Christianity to the religions’ copying Christian teaching about Jesus. This leads us to the next area to examine: the logical fallacies committed by those claiming that Christianity borrowed from pagan mystery religions. We’ll consider two fallacies in particular: the fallacy of the false cause and the terminological fallacy. If one thing precedes another, some conclude that the first thing must have caused the second. This is the fallacy of the false cause. A rooster may crow before the sunrise every morning, but that does not mean the rooster causes the sun to rise. Even if pre-Christian accounts of mythological gods closely resembled Christ (and they do not), it does not mean they caused the Gospel writers to invent a false Jesus. Making such a claim is akin to saying the TV series Star Trekcaused the NASA Space Shuttle program. The terminological fallacy occurs when words are redefined to prove a point. For example, the Zeitgeist movie says that Horus “began his ministry,” but the word ministry is being redefined. Horus had no actual “ministry”—nothing like that of Christ’s ministry. Those claiming a link between Mithras and Jesus talk about the “baptism” that initiated prospects into the Mithras cult, but what was it actually? Mithraic priests would place initiates into a pit, suspend a bull over the pit, and slit the bull’s stomach, covering the initiates in blood and gore. Such a practice bears no resemblance whatsoever to Christian baptism—a person going under water (symbolizing the death of Christ) and then coming back out of the water (symbolizing Christ’s resurrection). But advocates of a mythological Jesus deceptively use the same term, “baptism,” to describe both rites in hopes of linking the two. This brings us to the subject of the truthfulness of the New Testament. No other work of antiquity has more evidence to its historical veracity than the New Testament. The New Testament has more writers (nine), better writers, and earlier writers than any other document from that era. Further, history testifies that these writers went to their deaths claiming that Jesus had risen from the dead. While some may die for a lie they think is true, no person dies for a lie he knows to be false. Think about it—if someone was about to crucify you upside down, as happened to the apostle Peter, and all you had to do to save your life was renounce a lie you had knowingly told, what would you do? In addition, history has shown that it takes at least two generations to pass before myth can enter a historical account. That’s because, as long as there are eyewitnesses to an event, errors can be refuted and mythical embellishments can be exposed. All the Gospels of the New Testament were written during the lifetime of the eyewitnesses, with some of Paul’s Epistles being written as early as A.D. 50. Paul directly appeals to contemporary eyewitnesses to verify his testimony (1 Corinthians 15:6). The New Testament attests to the fact that, in the first century, Jesus was not mistaken for any other god. When Paul preached in Athens, the elite thinkers of that city said, “‘He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities,’—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, ‘May we know what this new teaching is which you are proclaiming? For you are bringing some strange things to our ears; so we want to know what these things mean’” (Acts 17:18–20, NASB). Clearly, if Paul were simply rehashing stories of other gods, the Athenians would not have referred to his doctrine as a “new” and “strange” teaching. If dying-and-rising gods were plentiful in the first century, why, when the apostle Paul preached Jesus rising from the dead, did the Epicureans and Stoics not remark, “Ah, just like Horus and Mithras”? In conclusion, the claim that Jesus is a copy of mythological gods originated with authors whose works have been discounted by academia, contain logical fallacies, and cannot compare to the New Testament Gospels, which have withstood nearly 2,000 years of intense scrutiny. The alleged parallels between Jesus and other gods disappear when the original myths are examined. The Jesus-is-a-myth theory relies on selective descriptions, redefined words, and false assumptions. Jesus Christ is unique in history, with His voice rising above all false gods’ as He asks the question that ultimately determines a person’s eternal destiny: “Who do you say I am?” (Matthew 16:15).

TEST THE SPIRITS

Test the spirits
"Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world" (1 John 4:1).

In this verse believers are commanded to "test the spirits to see whether they are from God." This same command is echoed in other parts of Scripture as well. For example, in 1 Thessalonians 5:20-21 we find Paul exhorting the Christians to not "despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good."

These two passages are just a few of the many that warn Christians to test the message that people or spirits proclaim. This is true in all situations but most importantly when a person or spirit is claiming to speak for God. Christians are to be discerning hearers and readers of all messages. The reason for the admonition to "test the spirits" or "test all things" is that there are "many false prophets" or "wolves in sheep's clothing" that try to lead Christians astray. Sadly, there are many people who claim to speak for God who are presenting a false gospel that is powerless to save. Such errant teaching leaves people with a false hope of salvation and, in a way, inoculates them from the true message. People who are deceived into thinking everything is fine will be more resistant to the truth.

Second Corinthians 11:13-15 warns us that "such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds." So the reason for testing the spirits, for testing all religious teaching, is to see if it is truly from God or if it is a lie from Satan and his servants.

The test is to compare what is being taught with the clear teaching of the Bible. The Bible alone is the Word of God; it alone is inspired and inerrant. Therefore, the way to test the spirits is to see if what is being taught is in line with the clear teaching of Scripture. In Acts 17:10-11 the Berean Jews were commended because, after they heard the teachings of Paul and Silas, they "examined the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so." The Bereans were called "noble" for doing so.

Testing the spirits means that one must know how to "examine the Scriptures." Rather than accept every teaching, discerning Christians diligently study the Scriptures. Then they know what the Bible says and therefore can "test all things and hold fast to what is true." In order to do this, a Christian must "be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15). The Word of God is to be "a lamp" and "a light" to our path (Psalm 119:105). We must let its light shine on the teachings and doctrines of the day; the Bible alone is the standard by which all truth must be judged.

JOHN THE BAPTIST

John the Baptist was in prison for doing his job - telling the truth that everybody needs to repent of sin and get ready for God. John knew that God had appointed him; he was born miraculously to aged parents and the angel Gabriel had explained to them what their child's life purpose would be (Luke 1:5-25). Although John was a cousin of Jesus, he did not identify Him as God the Son, until the Father and the Spirit joined Jesus at His baptism (John 1:29-34).

Jesus honoured John as a man who did not change his message to suit his hearers. He was not a lone artistic philosopher to suit the radicals of society. He was not dressed to impress; a harsh camel hair coat, and leather belt was not going to attract the big businessmen. The people who travelled out into the wilderness to hear him preach wanted to hear God speak through his unusual man: whether or not they wanted to be obedient, they knew that John was God's mouthpiece.

Jesus explained that John was no 'ordinary' prophet, but a prophet whose ministry was already specified in Malachi 3:1 "'I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,' says the Lord Almighty." As the immediate forerunner of Jesus, John's ministry validated Him as 'the Lord' who would bring a new covenant.

When God chooses a person for a key spiritual task, He equips His servant with supernatural resolve so he or she is not deflected from the task. That resolve is a determination to please God alone; not to win favour or popularity, or to secure patronage or influence. What is said will be true, without fear or favour; what is done will demonstrate God's righteousness. Such a person will always point people to Jesus. In your community and workplace, do not give in to popularism, materialism, or power politics. Just be available for Jesus to use you as His ambassador, be resolved to be true to the truth, and ignore the opinions of others.

Prayer:  Father God. Thank You for appointing me to be Your witness where I live and work. I am sorry for the times when I have ignored the truth to suit the people I am with. Please help me to have that prophetic resolve which is unaffected by patronage or pressure. Please help me to be clear that my life is about advertising You and not me; and give me the desire to do everything for Your glory. In Jesus' Name. Amen.
 

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DIFFERENT BIBLE VERSIONS

Different English Bible versions
Answer: Depending on how one distinguishes a different Bible version from a revision of an existing Bible version, there are as many as 50 different English versions of the Bible. The question then arises: Is there really a need for so many different English versions of the Bible? The answer is, of course, no, there is no need for 50 different English versions of the Bible. This is especially true considering that there are hundreds of languages into which the entire Bible has not yet been translated. At the same time, there is nothing wrong with there being multiple versions of the Bible in a language. In fact, multiple versions of the Bible can actually be an aid in understanding the message of the Bible.

There are two primary reasons for the different English Bible versions. (1) Over time, the English language changes/develops, making updates to an English version necessary. If a modern reader were to pick up a 1611 King James Version of the Bible, he would find it to be virtually unreadable. Everything from the spelling, to syntax, to grammar, to phraseology is very different. Linguists state that the English language has changed more in the past 400 years than the Greek language has changed in the past 2,000 years. Several times in church history, believers have gotten “used” to a particular Bible version and become fiercely loyal to it, resisting any attempts to update/revise it. This occurred with the Septuagint, the Latin Vulgate, and more recently, the King James Version. Fierce loyalty to a particular version of the Bible is illogical and counterproductive. When the Bible was written, it was written in the common language of the people at that time. When the Bible is translated, it should be translated into how a people/language group speaks/reads at that time, not how it spoke hundreds of years ago.

(2) There are different translation methodologies for how to best render the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek into English. Some Bible versions translate as literally (word-for-word) as possible, commonly known as formal equivalence. Some Bible versions translate less literally, in more of a thought-for-thought method, commonly known as dynamic equivalence. All of the different English Bible versions are at different points of the formal equivalence vs. dynamic equivalence spectrum. The New American Standard Bible and the King James Version would be to the far end of the formal equivalence side, while paraphrases such as The Living Bible and The Message would be to the far end of the dynamic equivalence side.

The advantage of formal equivalence is that it minimizes the translator inserting his/her own interpretations into the passages. The disadvantage of formal equivalence is that it often produces a translation so woodenly literal that it is not easily readable/understandable. The advantage of dynamic equivalence is that it usually produces a more readable/understandable Bible version. The disadvantage of dynamic equivalence is that it sometimes results in “this is what I think it means” instead of “this is what it says.” Neither method is right or wrong. The best Bible version is likely produced through a balance of the two methodologies.

In choosing which Bible version(s) you are going to use/study, do research, discuss with Christians you respect, read the Bibles for yourself, and ultimately, ask God for wisdom regarding which Bible version He desires you to use.

MARY MAGDALENE

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JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR DID NOT DO MARY MAGDALENE’S SAUCY NOTORIETY ANY FAVOURS 

 by Richard Leonard |

Mary Magdalene should sue the Church for defamation. Never mind her being the apostle to the Apostles on Easter Day, since Tertullian in the third century her name has been synonymous with being a prostitute. 

Yet she is not like other women in the Gospels who have “a bad reputation in the town” or weep at Jesus’ feet and wipe their tears away with their hair, or are caught in the “very act of adultery” or pour oil over Jesus’ head.

The first that we hear of Mary Magdalene is that she has seven demons cast out of her by Jesus. We are not told what these demons are but, given what people wrongly thought at the time, they could have been a stomach complaint, acne or a twitch. There is no suggestion they were sexual demons.

Jesus Christ Superstar did not do Mary Magdalene’s saucy notoriety any favours by giving her the song of the show – “I don’t know how to love him”. 

Curiously some brides want this song sung at their weddings, to which I reply: “If you don’t know, you shouldn’t be here.” And think of the rest of the song’s chorus:
“And I’ve had so many men before, in very many ways … he’s just one more.”

I don’t think that’s what we want to say at a Nuptial Mass!

The most important thing we know about Mary Magdalene is that in three of the four Gospels she is the first to experience the Risen Christ and is the first Christian missionary, the apostle to the Apostles.

Two details in John’s account are especially poignant. We are told that Mary encountered the Risen Christ while weeping outside Jesus’ tomb. She felt a double loss on that first Easter Sunday. Not only was she grieving for the loss of the one whom she had seen tortured to death, but she also wept for what she thought was the ultimate insult inflicted on Him – the desecration of his grave and the stealing of his corpse.

Mary Magdalene is the patron saint of all those of us who have ever stood at tombs and wept. She shows us that in the middle of any grief Christ comes to us and calls us by name. Because of Mary’s tears, and even more because of her evangelisation, we believe that there is not a human being who is not known to God by name. 

Jesus tells Mary that his God and Father is now her God and Father. God makes no distinction between anyone; we are all called by name to share in his life according to the grace that enables us to do so. God not only knows our name; he knows our heart, our history, and our selves.

In the Easter accounts, Mary Magdalene is the first witness to the Resurrection. For us the word “witness” usually means someone who attests to the truth of events from personal experience and knowledge. The power of personal witness can hardly be exaggerated. 

The same is true of Christian faith today. Belief in Jesus Christ as Saviour of the world might seem a good idea or an engaging concept. But the best witnesses have first-hand access to the truth. 

They do not believe just in the idea of the Resurrection, but have had a personal encounter with the Risen Christ themselves, and are bold enough to proclaim and live it. This may be why in the early Church the word for “witness” and the word for “martyr” were one and the same. Anyone who was brave enough to publicly witness to the Resurrection at that time, could well end up giving his or her life for it.

Within a generation after Jesus’ death, people all over the Mediterranean world, most of whom had never seen Jesus, reported that they too had encountered the presence of the Risen Christ. 

Jesus of Nazareth was not dead, but alive to them too and these same people not only believed in the Resurrection, but also were prepared to put their lives on the line for the person they had encountered.

Nothing has changed. This Easter we are called to be witnesses to Jesus, raised from the dead, and alive to us here and now. In our own way we are meant to put our bodies on the line for it.

Like Mary Magdalene, in our witness to Christ, we will have to pay a price for how we live and whom we challenge. 

Richard Leonard SJ is the author of What are we hoping for? Reflections for Lent and Easter (Alban Books). 

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FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER Year "C"

Fourth Sunday of Easter
Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/041716.cfm

Acts 13:14, 43-52
Psalm 100:1-2, 3, 5
Revelation 7:9, 14b-17
John 10:27-30


A reflection on today's Sacred Scriptures:

                                    Fourth Sunday of Easter “C”             

Every year, the Fourth Sunday after Easter is called Good Shepherd Sunday. This year the emphasis is on the voice of Jesus. We can imagine how that voice must have stirred the hearts of all who were disposed to listen to it. How it must have moved people with its authority and its power to persuade!

The voice of Jesus was at times so loving, and at other times so challenging. It was that voice saying to Peter, "Feed my sheep" that still rang in his ears as he preached boldly to the Sanhedrin; it was that voice crying out, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" that echoed still in the heart of Paul as he and Barnabas preached in the synagogues of Perga and Antioch and Iconium. It was the voice of Jesus which drowned out the vicious lies of all those enemies of truth that tried to choke off the Good News so bravely proclaimed by Peter and Paul.

How gladly those great Apostles suffered persecution and even death "for the sake of the Name." No wonder we call Peter and Paul the great pillars of the early Church who inspired so many others not to fear contempt and bodily harm because the Holy Spirit was with them. Those who followed that voice would be rewarded with a glorious crown.

No wonder that literally millions of Christians have suffered for their faith down through the ages. Millions even today are deprived of human rights, imprisoned and killed just because they are loyal to that voice of the Good Shepherd. Racial hatred, abuse of women, child slavery, and exploitation of the poor, to name but a few, are the effects of strident, angry, and evil voices which constantly try to drown out the loving voice of the Good Shepherd who proclaims justice for the oppressed.

In Jesus' lifetime on earth as preacher and healer, He was known for His compassion and love. Shortly before His Passion and death, he stopped on his way to Jerusalem to weep over the city, crying out, "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who were sent to it, How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood together under her wings, and you were not willing!"

Like a shepherd, Jesus leads His flock to eternal life. He called himself the door, the gate, the sheepfold itself. The shepherd knows each individual sheep by name, and each one of his flock are safe when they follow his call. "My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they never perish."

Today, we hear the voice of Jesus in the voice of His vicar, Pope Francis. Over and over, He is urging us to bring the power of our love and mercy to all without exception, especially to the poor, the persecuted, and the powerless. In faith, may we listen ever more obediently to our Shepherd.

4TH SUNDAY OF EASTER, CYCLE A

JOHN 10:1-10

Friends, today’s Gospel presents one of the most enduring and endearing images of Jesus. He is the Good Shepherd who guides and lays down his life for his sheep. How wonderful and strange that Christianity is not a set of ideas. It’s not a philosophy or an ideology. It’s a relationship with someone who has a voice. The first disciples were privileged to hear the voice of the historical Jesus. They heard its very particular tone and texture. But we hear his voice too in our own way, especially when we hear the Scriptures proclaimed at Mass. Mind you, we don’t just read the Bible; we hear the Bible. We also hear the voice of Jesus when the bishops and the Popes speak. We can also hear the voice of Jesus in the conscience, which Newman called “the aboriginal vicar of Christ in the soul.” We can hear the voice of Jesus in good spiritual friends as well, in those people who comfort us and challenge us and keep calling us to higher ideals and encourage us when we fall. We listen to the voice of Jesus because he is leading us to a renewed and transformed life with God.

RECLAIMING ADVENT

The Church urges people to reclaim Advent as a time of preparation and reflection. It is also a time that allows us to define what is human in a new way - in sharp contrast to the secularist vision of society, which the Holy Father Benedict XVI constantly warns us against.

A reflective stillness lies at the centre of Advent. Placed between Christ's first and second coming, the rhythms of the liturgy measure our time. Quietly, but insistently, it awakens our hope and invites us to wait upon the Lord who will fulfill his promise. It assures us that we will not wait in vain. Advent calls us to renew and deepen our trust, while the world finds trust difficult, and "hope" is dismissed as naive. Now, in this season of Advent we come to know that this time, the time in which we live, whatever the time, is the time of our redemption.
The liturgy of Advent is not like the seasonal background music in the shops, designed to put us in the right mood for spending. It is the song of faith, which expresses the reality from which we live our lives, and that faith gives us a particular way of seeing the world, of living in it and for it. Without pretension, we might describe it as a prophetic perspective. The Jewish theologian Abraham Heschel calls it the "exegesis of existence from a divine perspective". I think this is a good description of what we mean by discerning the "signs of the times". Christ is the centre of our existence; he is the one who establishes our perspective. For this reason, the Christian way of seeing things is necessarily distinctive. To those who do not share this perspective, it will appear strange. Hence the problem and the puzzle that Christianity poses for a secular culture. The puzzle is not caused by a Christ-centred perspective alone, however. Where a society – non Christian or post Christian - has forgotten how to read the substance of Christian faith, there can be a genuine ignorance but also a contrived ignorance among those who presume to know Christianity already. The old cliché about familiarity breeding contempt can be disconcertingly true. We live at a moment when our society is marked by deep struggles about its identity, values and purpose. The Church wants humanity to succeed, not fail. That is why it is passionately engaged in this struggle. It does not have any ambition to take away the legitimate independence of the secular but it does have a vision of what secular might be.
There are other voices, of course, sometimes representing an aggressive secularism or anti-theism, a vision of a secular society completely free of religion and its influence. Part of this approach is to construct a version of religion, especially Catholicism that not only makes it strange to the secular mind but presents it as a threat. Anti-theism represents religion as the enemy of the good that a secular society aspires to. Religion in general, but the Church in particular, comes to stand for all the deepest fears and demons of a liberal secularism: it is prejudiced, oppressive, irrational, authoritarian, capable of inspiring fanatical violence and abusive power. How often is the "religious" position characterised in this way? If religion is exorcised, the secularists say, then somehow society is restored to health. Liberated from the myths that hold us back, we can now make progress towards the secular light. If successful, this strategy of atheistic secularism not only gains a narrative dominance in defining society, it can feel its own vision legitimised and cleansed.
We Catholics do not deny that religion has its exotic, bizarre, grotesque and corrupt elements. But a straight glance at the state of our world or society gives enough evidence that these traits are not the monopoly of religion. An exclusively secular world, however democratic, is just as dark and broken as any other. The high priests of secular modernity can only look upon the reality of such a world with fear and horror. They know that ultimately their own doctrine of justification by faith alone in science, rationality, autonomy and limitless progress cannot produce salvation. Indeed, the evidence of the last century in particular is proof enough that science, technology and secular reason contain their own demons: self-centredness and destruction.

Before God goes out of our lives Advent calls us to consider not only that God is, but who God is. It does not present a puzzle but a mystery: God has finally disclosed his name, "Emanuel" - God with us. We expect a great theophany but all we have is an obscure stable. Even more radically, God chooses to be man, a frail human at that. Humanity and God are now inseparable and cannot be thought apart. We can no longer deny God without in some way denying ourselves. To exile him from the world is to alienate ourselves from our own truth. This is the Christian truth and it must inevitably challenge the secular dream of the sovereign self and its domination of creation. This is why it remains subversive of all our claims of omnipotence. All the arguments advanced by contemporary anti-theists in the secularist cause are dull and tired. That they are not new is not the point. If there is a battle to define a secular society, it hinges on the deeper battle to define what is human. This is the real issue.

  If there is nothing else beyond ourselves, we have, at last, become masters of our own destiny. Not only are we the principal character in our own story, we are the writer and the reader as well. Even a person who had no religious faith would be entitled to ask, "What's the catch?" If we are truly the architects of our own humanity, if there is no ultimate accountability for who we are or what we can become, we shall be left wondering what constitutes the perfect human being and the perfect human society? If it is true that we are self-made, then in whose image are we coined? We need only look to history, especially our recent history, to find eloquent witness to the impoverishment and waste resulting from such lunacy. In contrast, the Advent liturgy offers no false dreams. With a steady, clear-eyed realism it asks us to look at the world in which we live; the world in which the Word has chosen to become flesh. This is not a look that retreats into sentimental optimism or drags us into a weary fatalism. Advent reminds us that God has made the human condition his own condition. It takes us beyond the facile hopes of a somewhere, sometime better place or the gestures of stoic despair.
Left to ourselves, we remain only an endless enigma; but in Christ we see ourselves again. He, the image of the unseen God, also reveals our image, the truth of who we are and what we are to become. In him, we see what it means to be fully human, fully alive. This is why Christianity can never be in any doubt about the intrinsic value and dignity that belongs to every person. The transformative social, economic, and political significance of this truth are immediately clear. Human value and dignity are not dependent upon economic wealth, social status, intellectual ability or social utility. Laws and constitutions may enshrine rights, but the value and dignity of the human person cannot ultimately depend upon them. We know from experience that legal constructions and social conventions can be ignored, withdrawn or changed as powers and circumstances dictate.
A Christian faith that understands the meaning of Jesus Christ knows that the intrinsic dignity and value of the human person, from the beginning of life to its end, is secured within God's own Triune life. The Church's absolute opposition to any form of instrumentalisation of the human person is not only an ethical principle but a theological truth.

Grounded in the reality of Christ, Christianity offers a vision of an "integral humanism". It seeks to understand both the uniqueness and relational totality of every person. If we are serious about genuine human flourishing, the building of a real culture of life, then persons cannot be reduced to the material even when this is understood in the most complex way. We are spiritual beings who live in transcendence which is expressed in every aspect of our lives and relationships. Each one of us has a purpose, a reason for being; each of us is a unique and irreplaceable gift to the whole of humanity. If we are seduced into the impoverished vision of an "exclusive humanism", how can we create a culture that is genuinely life-giving? If we accept false images of our diminished selves and deny our unique vocation as human beings, then whose servant do we become?
A liberal secular society places great emphasis on personal autonomy. The potential increase or loss of autonomy is often the persuasive argument for or against a particular policy or position. In the birth, death and Resurrection of his Son, God not only presents us with the true image of what it is to be human, he offers us a new understanding of freedom. "Autonomy" can contain an unbalanced equation of freedom and power. When God presents us with his own freedom in the reality of his Incarnate Son, freedom and power are placed in relation to truth, which is love. Without this relation freedom is always in danger of becoming the brutal imposition of an unaccountable will. This is the old determinism that ordains the survival of the fittest and it corrupts all our relationships. Now, as Nietzsche accurately saw, Christianity and its ethic of the Kingdom destabilises this order of the strong, announcing its end. In Christ, God creates freedom, he does not destroy it. God, who comes to us with unexpected humility, is born, lives and dies in poverty, does not choose to overpower us but offers us an utterly new possibility. God does not confront us with a boundary; he presents us with an expanding horizon. He calls us into a deeper freedom and love by giving us the greatest freedom of all: the self-emptying of love beyond the bonds of family, nation and self-interest; beyond the accumulation of wealth or security for the sake of the good, especially the good of those who are the weakest and the most despised, those who have no freedom or power or anything to commend them except that they too are his image. Then, if necessary, to give joyously one's life for them. This is not weakness but a freedom that bestows on us the gift of glory. It is the transcendence which offers us life. In Advent we can begin to see what this may mean.
A secular world wants us to believe its version of our story. It wants us to look at the statistics for "religion" and see there a story of inevitable decline. If this is all we see and how we think, then we ourselves have begun to be secularised. We have been exiled to a strange wintry land where we cannot sing the Lord's song. At the heart of Advent is the figure of Mary. She is the one who attends to the Word and knows that whatever the circumstances, no matter how improbable things may seem, "nothing is impossible for God". Her Advent is both a waiting and an attentive readiness. Like any mother, it is a time of preparation for the child that grows within her. It is a time of learning, especially learning about herself. She knows that the life within her is already changing her and her body. So it is with the rhythms of faith and history. The life of the Spirit grows, often in hidden ways when all the signs are contrary. In these times we are not dying or declining, we are being made ready; we are learning anew who we are and what supreme mystery we carry. A secular world can describe us; it may seek to dismiss us, but it does not write our story, much less write us off. It cannot judge the life of the Spirit or the work that God is doing in the midst of his people.