Pope Benedict XVI Blog

Emmanuel: God-With-Us, God-Within-Us!

By Monsignor Mark J. Seitz
12/23/2009
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

God entered concretely, in the flesh, in the midst of human lives and he continues to dwell in the midst of human lives, in the midst of our lives.


Pause and consider this Mystery anew in this holy Season. Remove it from the restrictive confines of its familiarity. Just pause a moment before the Nativity scene and ponder as did Mary, as did the shepherds and the wise men. And realize that if God entered our history in a given moment, it was a moment whose impact would never cease to be felt.

DALLAS, TX (Catholic Online) - People often say to me, “God seems so far away. I don’t know how to find Him.” I have to acknowledge in honesty, that there have been times when that has been my sentiment as well. I have noted that this feeling has been particularly strong when there were sinful actions in my life that had not been reconciled, or when my prayer life lagged.

But what has come again and again to my consciousness this Advent and Christmas time is quite the opposite sentiment. I find myself marveling at how incredibly, unimaginably close God is! Perhaps he is so close that we often fail to even look for him there. Have you ever experienced times on a bright sunny day when you have searched for your sunglasses only to discover that they are already on your head? Have you ever searched for your keys only to find they are already in your pocket or in your purse?

Those experiences, I think, begin to give us a clue as to how close God has come to us and why we fail to find him. Yet, these examples only hint at the truth because God is much closer than this. Somehow our unconverted imagination seems to present God as far off in the heavens, far removed from our sight, or dwelling in the peoples of past ages and coming to us only in well-worn stories that take their place behind familiar fairy tales and children’s stories.

We often miss the impact of the great Mystery we celebrate at Christmas because it is as close to us as the nose on our face and so transforming for our daily lives that it goes beyond our wildest imaginings. What we celebrate is precisely a God who has chosen not to remain distant and unknowable; the Lord and creator of the universe who has chosen not to live in realms impenetrable beyond our sight. We celebrate a God who so humbled himself that he became “God-with-us” “Emmanuel,” taking flesh in the womb of our sister, the Virgin Mary.

Pause and consider this Mystery anew in this holy Season. Remove it from the restrictive confines of its familiarity. Just pause a moment before the Nativity scene and ponder as did Mary, as did the shepherds and the wise men. And realize that if God entered our history in a given moment, it was a moment whose impact would never cease to be felt. No moment in time can confine God. God entered human history and God lives in human history. God entered concretely, in the flesh, in the midst of human lives and he continues to dwell in the midst of human lives, in the midst of our lives.
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posted by Dr. Denice Hanley, DPM, M.Div. @ 8:03 AM