Fr Clyde M Harvey

“The Word was made Flesh and lived among us.”(Jn.1:14)
“Though he was by nature God, he did not think equality with God a thing to be clung to, but emptied himself.”(Ph.2:6)

At Christmas time, we celebrate the primary expression of God’s solidarity with us. 

It has always been part of our spiritual tradition and teaching that we look to God’s action, to Christ, if we would seek to understand what is required of us. This is particularly important when we seek to understand and live the sacraments of the Church.

Any approach to solidarity must begin with God’s solidarity with us. The incarnation invites us to see that all solidarity must begin with a self-emptying. God sees our humanity in its poverty and need. He enters into that condition and spends some thirty years drinking at the well of human life before he dares to proclaim its transformation. The rich becomes poor. 

The Almighty stoops down to embrace and lift up. The powerful becomes powerless and vulnerable. The Good News is received and proclaimed by the outsiders, the shepherds and the foreign (Iranian) wise men

In the midst of the diocesan focus on solidarity, Christmas reminds us that, as Church, solidarity must begin with a step-down, a self-emptying. In a world that was confused, violent and pagan, God made a fundamental choice to reach down and enter into that world as a baby. 

He did not stay in his heaven and declare his desire to teach and to save. He entered into the world in a radical poverty and silence; so much so, that the world was unaware of his presence until thirty years later. He learnt the ways, the language and values of the world before he dared to speak truth, love, justice and peace to that world. 

The Church in this archdiocese faces a similar challenge.  This rich nation is proving itself to be quite poor in the face of crime, increasing materialism, rampant selfishness and failing education. We are beset with confusion and violence.  Some would say that we are bordering on the pagan. 

Can the Church enter into that world so deeply that it can begin to sow seeds of hope and redemption? We tend to think that we have the answers, if we would only turn to Christ. If we are honest, we acknowledge that many, if not most, of our citizens have turned to Christ in some way. Yet the decline continues. 

Christ is not the answer. Christ is the question. One such question is his question to Peter, “Do you love me more than these others do?” In a world where so many claim Christ, those who are baptised into him are asked that question over and over again as we become comfortable with the values and standards of the world. The world wants peace, as long as it costs nothing.

The world wants justice as long as it is the blood of others that is shed. Those who enter solidarity with the poor know only too well that, just when you think that you have entered into the depths, the ground shifts under your feet and God calls you even deeper.

After the ordination ceremony on December 16, at which an appeal was made for vocations, I met a group of young men from one of our community prayer groups and I asked them whether they were considering vocation.

I said to them, “Would you be willing to give your life for the Gospel on this East-West corridor, to take to the streets at risk to yourself, to become a witness to your brothers and sisters, to take a bullet or two to turn the tide?” They laughed and thought of their next prayer meeting and considered a priesthood of glory and praise. 

God left the glory of heaven and entered into solidarity with a hurting humanity. Where is that happening in the Church today? Solidarity will be empty and doomed unless it begins with a witness to precisely such self-emptying.

We do not have the answers, but we can hear the questions. He who wants to save his life will lose it. Only the willingness to lose everything in the drama of faith will allow us to find the life that counts unto eternity.

A Church that seeks to chart its own salvation will continue to wither and die. A Church that seeks to enter into, experience and understand the messy fleshiness of these days will find its mission and voice in authentic solidarity.