MSC Magazine | Issue 4 | Summer 2020

Page 3| Missionaries of the Sacred Heart this is our God – this is our saviour! Who of us would have ever thought of this as an image of God… no one! Not only is he born into the mess and smell of a sta- ble, but he is also born into a des- pised race, who are also occu- pied by a foreign country. He is at the bottom! THIS MUST HAVE MEANING FOR US For me, this story is about God meeting us in the mess. In my mess. In our mess. In this Pandem- ic Covid19 mess. In the smell and stench of the stable of our lives our God meets us – meets us where we are. Where we are most helpless – where we are most powerless – our God meets us. It is about our God coming into our loneliness, our pain, our poverty, our vulnerability, our helplessness, and meeting us where we are at. This is HOPE. So many other great religious traditions try to move us beyond the human experience: for the Hindu – it is Nirvana; the Buddhist – it is enlightenment; the Jew – it is heaven; and we could go on, but for us, our God meets us in our humanness… in our body… in our here and now. Our weaknesses, our failures, in our nakedness, in our times of loneliness, in the midst of family breakdown, in our addictions, in our poverty – our God meets us. Not only this, but our God also meets us in our to- getherness, in our moments of joy, our moments of fun, in all our good times - our God meets us. A lot of us fear ‘this reality’, that we meet our God in our humanity, in our togetherness. In fact the Christian story assures us that we do not have to leave the world, we do not need to enter into nir- vana, enlightenment, or even heaven to meet God, for our God comes to us – Emmanuel: God – with – us. As we experienced this terrible year of Covid19 - one cannot hide from the pain of the world. One cannot cover it up. All we can do is share it – God did. God left whatever throne people had put him on in their imaginations and came to earth. God walked down the ladder, letting go of being powerful and mighty. This is who OUR God is: a baby, fragile and helpless, the one who shares our poverty, our help- lessness, our powerlessness; the one who enters our very human, lived condition and shows us the way of hope. This Christmas, and hopefully a post-Covid19 New Year, let us walk down that ladder, let’s let go, and discover where we least expect to find God, in our own very lived, human, messy condition. And from this place we can then sing: “Glory to God in the highest and peace to all of goodwill. Have a very peaceful, joy-filled Christmas and we look forward to 2021 to continue God’s mission – being on earth the heart of God. Finally a really big thank you to our Deputy Provin- cial, over the past three years, Stephen Dives msc. Steve has not only been a wise council to me over this period, but a wonderful friend, who has been supportive, encouraging, and showing great broth- erly love. Thank you Stephen. I wish you every suc- cess and blessing as you take up this new chapter of being Superior of Sacred Heart Campus, Ken- sington. Thank you ! Cheers! your brother MSC, Chris PS: enjoy this Christmas Summer edition of ‘Being on earth the heart of God’.