The Problem with the Baby

There was a scene in a movie where Will Farrell prays at meal time to Little Baby Jesus. Will ardently opposes calling Him anything but that. It made me laugh, but in the Christmas season, it began to feel, well, almost sacrilegious. Not that I can't joke around. But something about the lack of awe for God becoming Flesh and dwelling among us can get lost at Christmas. Not just in the world, but in me.

I just received a little Advent devotional and it gave me the words for my discomfort.

It's also my new quote, as Fr. Rohr. nailed it so well!

"Jesus identified his own message with what he called the "reign of God" or the "kingdom of God," whereas we had often settled for the sweet coming of a baby who asked little of us in terms of surrender, encounter, mutuality, or anything of the study of Scriptures....

.Sentimentality, Defined as trumped-up emotions, can be an avoiding of and a substitute for an actual relationship.... We... must admit that there is a constant temptation ..to avoid the lectionary and Word of God for private and pious devotions that have little power to actually change us or call our ego assumptions into question. The Word of God, however, confronts, converts and consoles us- in that order.

The suffering, injustice, and devastation on this planet are too great now to settle for any infantile gospel or any infantile Jesus.

'Jesus is Lord!' of all creation! .... It is to this adult and cosmic Christ that we are saying, "Come, Lord Jesus" (Rev. 22:20 ...

This makes our entire lives, and the life of the church, one huge 'advent.'..

Remember, Advent is always-until the end of days."

from Preparing for Christmas with Richard Rohr. ( Go, Franciscans! )