Happy New Year and many blessings to all of you as we begin 2013! Pope Benedict has picked up his Year of Faith catechesis series after his Christmas respite.
We have just been celebrating the Birth of Jesus and all the joyful traditions that come with it. These special days of the year are also a door of faith that we can walk through to learn more about God, and the Pope asks us once again to reflect. This time, the question is: where did Jesus come from?
It's actually a really interesting question. Whether or not you believe that Jesus is God, the fact is that he existed and his life changed the course of history. We should question why. It's a very curious thing that a baby born in a cave in an obscure corner of the world 2,000 years ago had such an impact on world history. It's worth wondering who he is and where he came from.
The Gospels, of course, make it clear: Jesus' origin is the Father, God. He comes from God in a totally different way than anyone else comes from God. As we recite in the Creed: he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man. When Gabriel spoke with Mary at the Annunciation, that's exactly what he said would happen, and we still profess the truth of the Incarnation every Sunday in the Creed.
(Credo from the Mass of Incoronation by Mozart, recorded in the Vatican)
Let's take a closer look at this. In the Creed, Jesus is given lots of titles and descriptions: Lord, Christ, Only Begotten Son of God, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, consubstantial with the Father. From all these names, what we can affirm is that Jesus is always referred to in relation to the Father. His whole being points to the Father all the time.
The Incarnation wasn't just Jesus' decision; it was the work of the whole Trinity and realized with the consent of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Mary is an integral part of the plan of our salvation; she became the living Ark of the Covenant when the Holy Spirit descended upon her...much like the cloud descended on the Tent of Meeting (which housed the Ark) in the days of infant Israel.
The presence of Jesus in the world is the beginning of the new creation, the new beginning of humanity. Perhaps to think of Jesus as the "New Adam" seems silly to us, but whether or not you think the first 11 chapters of Genesis is a myth, the world had to begin somehow. In that creation, somewhere along the line, human persons began to exist. And we are different from all the rest of the world because we have the capacity to think, to choose, and we are free to govern ourselves and our actions. No one can ever that potential from us. Our capacities, however, are wounded because of original sin--we do not always choose the good that we know is the true good.
Into this fight between good and evil which we all experience, Jesus comes as the New Adam and is called so because he gives humanity a new beginning. Through faith in Jesus, therefore, we are brought into a new life that is so powerful it is like a second birth. When we are baptized, this new humanity, that is, new life in Christ Jesus, is given to us. It is free and unmerited. As Saint Paul writes in the Letter to the Romans:
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship. When we cry, "Abba! Father!" it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God...It may not always feel to us like we are sons and daughters of God, but what we feel is not always equal to what is true. If we trust God and, like Mary, entrust our lives to the Lord, everything changes. Our lives take on new meaning and purpose: I am the child of a Father who loves me and will never abandon me.
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