{"id":5076,"date":"2017-12-22T13:19:45","date_gmt":"2017-12-22T18:19:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/sickpilgrim\/?p=5076"},"modified":"2017-12-22T15:05:59","modified_gmt":"2017-12-22T20:05:59","slug":"two-wisdoms-a-dark-devotional","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sickpilgrim\/2017\/12\/two-wisdoms-a-dark-devotional\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas at War: A Dark Devotional"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Original<\/a>
Original art by Brian C. Jocks<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

As I read and meditated on this Sunday\u2019s readings, I couldn\u2019t get a question out of my mind. If the theme\u00a0is that Jesus is the descendant of King David and fulfills the promises made by God to his chosen people, then why insert the conclusion of the Letter to the Romans.<\/span><\/p>\n

After dwelling on the question for some time I came to the conclusion that the keyword for understanding this choice is \u201cwisdom.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

St. Paul speaks of wisdom<\/em> more than any other New Testament author. Paul believes that God has revealed his plan for creation and has chosen him to bring all men to understand it. That\u2019s why Paul sees that the conversion of those who hear him\u00a0is only the beginning. He cannot rest until he has brought his spiritual sons and daughters into the full understanding of the mystery that Jesus has revealed to him (Col 1:9-10). <\/span><\/p>\n

For some time,\u00a0I thought St. Paul was a sort of hidden meta-physician, a person who was eager to obtain a true and grounded knowledge of God that could be valid for everyone. But he\u2019s not. He made this very clear when he wrote this: <\/span><\/p>\n

The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: \u201cI will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the learning of the learned I will set aside.\u201d <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Where is the wise one? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made the wisdom of the world foolish? For since in the wisdom of God the world did not come to know God through wisdom, it was the will of God through the foolishness of the proclamation to save those who have faith. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

For Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.\u00a0<\/span><\/i>(1 Cor. 1:18-25)<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Notice how St. Paul contrasts human wisdom with the divine wisdom, notice how the divine wisdom is summarized in two words: \u201cChrist crucified.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m convinced that years of preaching and sermons have made this concept rather vacuous, so I\u2019ll try to present it in another way. <\/span><\/p>\n

The tradition of Orthodox Christianity has produced splendid icons full of theological meanings of unsurpassable value. The icon of the Nativity is especially important because it presents a fundamental detail: the Child Jesus is not in a stable, but in a dark cave that resembles a sepulcher; he\u2019s not placed in a manger but in a sarcophagus, and he\u2019s surrounded by what appears to be a funeral shroud. He\u2019s presented as a corpse. The corpse of a newborn baby. We celebrate the birth of a King who is a victim, designated to suffer and atone for his people. Not exactly what we call Christmas spirit.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now let that image sink in for a while.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"nativity\"<\/a><\/p>\n

What\u2019s happening inside you? How do you feel? Do you find comfort in the fact that God had to reveal merciful love through the death of Christ? Do you feel some kind of desolation, knowing that God\u2019s love surpasses all possibility of human understanding?\u00a0<\/span>The truth is that only through the transformation of our hearts by the love poured into them by the Holy Spirit can we even begin to comprehend (and yeah, that\u2019s not the same thing as understanding). <\/span><\/p>\n

But at Christmas, it\u2019s essential that we remember there is no other way: we need to become other Christs.\u00a0Then we will\u00a0see the goodness of the Lord. But this process is not easy. Love grows in us, like a sickness, like a tumor, extending its roots into the deepest, darkest corners of our hearts, changing us, making us what we don\u2019t want to be, because it\u2019s the nature of love to kill the self to make space for the Other. <\/span><\/p>\n

In these days we talk about the War on Christmas, but the truth\u00a0is to the contrary. \u00a0The truth is that Christmas begins a war in you, as painful as labor, because Christ must be born in you.<\/span><\/p>\n

Andrea Ciceri is a RPG and video game geek who also happens to have a PhD in Philosophy of Religion. Married, father of one son, he loves to cook for his family and friends. He is the proud owner of his family bookshop in Italy.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I read and meditated on this Sunday\u2019s readings, I couldn\u2019t get a question out of my mind. If the theme\u00a0is that Jesus is the descendant of King David and fulfills the promises made by God to his chosen people, then why insert the conclusion of the Letter to the Romans. After dwelling on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5084,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1626,26],"tags":[2021,893,1389,2212,1682,2394],"class_list":["post-5076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advent","category-dark-devotional","tag-andrea-ciceri","tag-death","tag-love","tag-st-paul","tag-unconscious-christs","tag-war-on-christmas"],"yoast_head":"\nChristmas at War: A Dark Devotional<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"it\u2019s in the nature of love to kill the self to make space for the Other.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sickpilgrim\/2017\/12\/two-wisdoms-a-dark-devotional\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" 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