![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/766\/2018\/12\/word-made-flesh-423x2501.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Movies with Biblical themes were both attractive and problematic in my early years. We did not go to movies, but it was okay to watch them on TV (go figure), except on Sundays (go figure again).\u00a0Of particular interest were Hollywood epics of Biblical proportions, such as \u201cThe Ten Commandments,\u201d \u201cBen Hur,\u201d \u201cThe Robe,\u201d and \u201cQuo Vadis.\u201d Moses always has, in my imagination, looked like Charlton Heston (and, I guess, like Ben Hur). Even more daring were the various Hollywood portrayals of Jesus, from \u201cmuscular Jesus\u201d in \u201cKing of Kings\u201d and \u201ccerebral Jesus\u201d in\u00a0\u201cThe Greatest Story Ever Told\u201d to, some years later, \u201cethereal and almost effeminate Jesus\u201d in \u201cJesus of Nazareth.\u201d I have many memories of fellow fundamentalists watching such movies with me and saying \u201cThat\u2019s not Scriptural\u201d and \u201cThat\u2019s not Biblical\u201d when characters from the sacred text said or did things that were not contained within the leather covers of the King James Version.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Nativity Story\u201d would not entirely escape such criticism, but it presents a remarkably straightforward, hence beautiful, melding of the birth of Jesus narratives. All of the standard elements are there\u2014Elizabeth and Zechariah, Mary and Joseph, shepherds and wise men at the manger, angels in appropriate places saying appropriate things, along with a particularly creepy father and son team of Herod the Great and Herod Antipas. These standard elements arise from a conflation of gospel texts. The authors of Mark and John apparently didn\u2019t think the circumstances of Jesus\u2019 birth important enough to even report on, while the authors of Matthew and Luke construct their stories from \u201ccherry-picked\u201d details. Luke does not mention the wise men or the star, but has angels singing to shepherds, who then visit Jesus in a manger in Bethlehem. Matthew has no worshipping shepherds or even a manger, but wise men following a star visit the holy family in a house, probably in Nazareth, sometime after Jesus\u2019 birth. Throw in Santa and some reindeer, and you\u2019d get the usual front lawn decorations for the holiday season.<\/p>\n
So where lies the truth? A friend who passed away a few years ago tended to be rather definitive in his pronouncements. Once at lunch he said that \u201cThe heart of Christianity is what you believe about the stories. Do you believe the stories are true or don\u2019t you? Yes or No? And if you say \u2018let me think about it,\u2019 that\u2019s the same as saying No!\u201d This was not directed at me specifically\u2014he was just drawing a line in the sand, as those of us who knew and loved him expected him to do. But I think I\u2019m in trouble. Because not only am I not sure about whether my answer to his question is \u201cyes,\u201d \u201cno,\u201d \u201clet me think about it,\u201d or even \u201cwhich stories are you referring to?\u201d\u2014I\u2019m inclined to say that \u201cit doesn\u2019t matter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Toward the end of most fall semesters, I spend a couple of weeks in the New Testament with a classroom full of college freshmen in the interdisciplinary course I teach in. Knowing that this was a group, largely the product of twelve years of Catholic parochial school education, for whom the Bible in college might be a tough sell, one year I asked my seminar group an out of the box question right at the start: What difference does it make whether these stories are or aren\u2019t true? If it were definitively proven tomorrow that Jesus never existed, then what? A fascinating discussion ensued, full of more nuance and insight than even I expected. Contributions ranged across the spectrum of possibilities, but one student\u2019s comment particularly stayed with me. \u201cI\u2019d still be a Christian,\u201d she said, \u201cbecause being a Christian makes me a better person than I would be if I wasn\u2019t.\u201d That\u2019s a good start\u2014the measure of one\u2019s faith is what impact it has in real time on the life being lived.<\/p>\n
Meister Eckhart once said that the virgin birth is something that happens within us, that the nativity story is the story of the continuing union of the Spirit of God with individual, fleshly human beings. But then Meister Eckhart was accused of heresy, was fortunate to escape being burned at the stake, and died in obscurity. No wonder I resonate with his insight. At the climatic manger scene in \u201cThe Nativity Story,\u201d the gold-bearing wise man Melchior, who looks amazingly like a colleague and friend of mine who is a professor emeritus in the history department, gazes at the baby and says \u201cGod made into flesh.\u201d There it is in its simplicity and iconoclasm\u2014the heart and soul of Christianity. God made into flesh.<\/p>\n
When did the Incarnation become \u201cmine\u201d for the first time? Was it when I consciously noted new space deep inside of me while reciting a Psalm at noon prayer with a bunch of Benedictine monks? Was it when I realized that I was no longer angry at people and issues from my past that had consumed my life? Was it when I heard Catherine of Genoa\u2019s \u201cMy deepest me is God\u201d in a homily? It truly doesn\u2019t matter when it happened, just that it did. On good days, I can look at another human being and detect holiness. On really, really good days, I can even turn my eyes inward and find something beautiful. I can say, with gratitude, awe, and disbelief all tangled together, along with Melchior gazing at the manger, \u201cGod made into flesh.\u201d Remarkably small. Disturbingly fragile. Completely mysterious. And utterly true.<\/p>\n
Merry Christmas<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Christmas movies are a big deal at my house. Jeanne goes for the classics, such as \u201cMiracle on 34th \u00a0Street,\u201d \u201cThe Bishop\u2019s Wife,\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s a Wonderful Life,\u201d and (her favorite) \u201cWhite Christmas.\u201d Those are all fine (except \u201cWhite Christmas,\u201d which I can take or leave), but I tend to favor more recent ones, like \u201cThe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2938,"featured_media":19093,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8,11,17,21,22,35,36,40,41,49,56,57,63,66,91,101,103],"tags":[121,169,170,221,242,287,289],"class_list":["post-25431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-angels-2","category-beauty","category-bible","category-catholicism","category-christianity","category-christmas","category-faith","category-family","category-god","category-grace","category-humility","category-jeanne","category-jesus","category-love","category-movies","category-stories","category-truth","category-wonder","tag-angels","tag-christianity","tag-christmas-2","tag-faith","tag-god","tag-jeanne","tag-jesus"],"yoast_head":"\n