The “Scandal of the Particular” refers to the absurd notion of the Incarnation — the ineffable, infinite, transcendent God breaking into our world as a human being at a particular time in history, to a particular family, in a particular place. One of my favorite Christmas hymns that reflects on this “scandal” is “Silent Night.” I feel drawn to ponder more deeply the lyrics: “Christ the Savior is born.” We’re so used to hearing those words that we can lose sight of their meaning. Nevertheless, they are just as absurd as they are ordinary — God of all creation being born.
In chapter 3 of Michael Himes’ book “The Mystery of Faith,” he explores the Incarnation, explaining first that the fall in Genesis 3 happens because Adam and Eve believe that their humanness is not enough. How often do we struggle with believing in our own “enoughness?” And from our insecurity can stem many less-than-loving actions. Yet Himes writes that the Incarnation reveals God’s hidden ambition: “From all eternity God has wanted to be exactly like you and me.” In our seeking to be more, in believing we are not enough, we miss the very reality that humanity itself is very good and that through it we share in God’s own likeness. Christ’s birth, God being born human, is salvific in itself, for it reveals to us the holiness and belovedness of our humanity.
So when “Christ the Savior is born” to Mary and Joseph, despite the ignoble circumstances and many challenges they have endured, they hold Holy Humanness, Divine Enoughness in their very arms, and look into his very eyes. I remember holding my sister right after she was born and looking into her eyes. I was not yet 6 and I was flooded with the most profound joy and gratitude my young heart had ever known, and I cried my first “happy tears.” In that infinite moment looking into my newborn sister’s eyes, I had enough, I was enough, and she was enough — and all was calm and all was bright.
This Christmas season, may we rest in the heavenly peace where divinity meets our own humanity, to hold ourselves exactly as we are, just as Mary and Joseph held Jesus, Lord at his birth. May we turn towards God’s loving gaze through the eyes of the Christ Child, reminding us of our unconditional belovedness and enoughness, and may it inspire and pervade all that we do.
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