Incarnate Word = Undercover Boss

I’ve never seen the show Undercover Boss, although I do think the premise is interesting. Deacon Greg brings his appreciation for the program into this week’s homily:

[The undercover] CEOs got to experience what their employees have to put up with – indignity, long hours, low pay, sexism. But they also got to share in the spirit that sustains these workers – optimism, faith, love of family. They saw the enthusiasm and sense of humor that some people bring to even the most menial jobs. The corporate leaders ultimately left their experiences changed.

In some ways, these are small stories of redemption and conversion – and not a bad fit, really, for the season we are just beginning, the season of Lent.

But I think there is another way of looking at this show – and I doubt it’s one that the creators imagined.

The story of an “undercover boss” — the story of a powerful leader lowering himself to menial work, and enduring all the struggles, hardship and pain that go with it — that story is also the story of something we celebrate every Sunday. It is the Incarnation. It is the reality of God becoming man. Sharing our sufferings. Bearing our burdens. Facing our trials. And knowing, as well, our hopes and joys. Jesus did all that – he was a man like us in all things but sin, Paul wrote – and we get a vivid example of it in today’s gospel.

You’ll want to read it all.