Christmas reflection

Another great entry from Richard Rohr. This one requires several readings to begin to grasp it. The funny thing is that I was just thinking last night about how I am too small to recognize God in me and how it is so easy to get caught up in daily things and somehow miss the incredible experience of God in us - Emmanuel.

"Recognize the Lord"

We, like Bethlehem, are too tiny to imagine the greatness within us: You Bethlehem-Ephrathah, too small to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to rule my people Israel. (Micah 5:1-2, NAB) Wholeness of God is to be found everywhere, but it is only apparent as every part learns to love every other part. I suspect that those who by grace can recognize the Lord within their own puny souls will be the same who will freely and intelligently affirm the Lord’s presence in the body of Jesus and the body of the universe. “But who am I that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” Elizabeth says. Perhaps if I can recognize and trust this little graciousness, this hidden wholeness, this child in the womb, then my spirit will be prepared for the greater visitation, the revelation of the Son of God. Yet I am always aware that God is not just an experience of mine. More rightly, I am an experience in the mind and heart of God. This is very difficult for us self-centered moderns to comprehend. But if we dare to trust this holy mystery, we participate in a Presence that is at once overwhelming gift and precious surprise – not really demanded or necessary, but actually not difficult to believe at all! So we Christians prepare to make festival. God goes ahead enfleshing spirit and inspiriting flesh, while for those of us who have learned, like Elizabeth, to trust these holy visitations, our life leaps within us for joy!

Richard Rohr - from Sojourners, “Baptism of Joy”