Dec. 25

O Admirabile commercium[i]

(Oh Wonderful Deal!)

Oh wonder-filled deal!

The Creator of the human race

took humanity from us

by being conceived

and born of a virgin.

In return God bestowed

deity upon us humans.

Oh what a deal!

Not words…

With one crisp statement, St. John announces that central event which divides most of the world's time into B.C. and A.D.: "Et Verbum caro factum est...." "And the Word became flesh..." (Jn 1:14). That simple statement confronts us, especially "at this time of the rolling year," with a remarkable conclusion: For the Christian, the Word of God now is no longer a word, and much less is it a “steady stream” of words. The enfleshed Word of God now is a Person: Jesus born in Bethlehem.

In religion there is an ever-present temptation, which might be called “verbalism” (a word as yet not invented). That’s an attitude which puts way too much emphasis and importance upon words. It lives by words and dies by words, and sometimes makes others also live and die by words. “Verbalism” is an attitude which attacks you after mass, wondering why you skipped or changed a “prescribed” prayer or shortened a “prescribed” reading or didn’t pronounce the words of consecration over the bread and wine as “prescribed” in the big altar missal.

There’s something in the Incarnation that does battle against “verbalism.” "At this time of the rolling year" especially, Christians remind themselves that when the fullness of time came and God wanted to speak comprehensively about Self, God did not say something; God did something. God did not beget a book (a bible); God begot a baby! God did not deliver a sermon; God delivered a Son.

Because of the Incarnation, Christians should do battle with “verbalism.” We should lay an axe to “verbalistic” religion with its doctrinaire approach which believes the really importance thing in religion is the orthodox statement of religious truth. And an axe to ”verbalistic” evangelism which thinks that to preach the Gospel means to speak words. And an axe to “verbalistic” liturgy with its flood of scripture readings (3 of them!) and with its recitations of responsorial psalms and "glorias" and "credo's" and "Pater Noster's, and with its rambling sermons which pretend to have God “down pat.” Christians should lay an axe also to the “verbalistic” approach to the great controversial issues of life, like abortion, celibacy, ordination, sexuality and homosexuality. The profound solutions to the really critical problems of society, and of the Church and family, lay not in the words of our mouths and minds but in the deep recesses of our hearts.

Not in words but in Story…

The Word is not a word anymore: the Word now is flesh and blood. The Word now is Story. For what are stories but words made flesh and blood? When we have a lot of shepherds and sheep, oxen and ass, stable and straw, kings and coffers, and whole choirs of angels hovering over a babe in Bethlehem, and singing "Gloria in excelsis Deo," then we have a lot of flesh and blood. Then we have a lot of Story, which we don’t so much hear with our ears as gaze upon with the eyes of our spirit. That is why, "at this time of the rolling year" especially, we must speak not in “words” but in Story.

Once the Novena of Christmas begins on 17^th of December, the scriptures at liturgy tell one story after another: "Once upon a time there was an old priest offering incense before the altar, and behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him and said: `Zechariah, your ancient wife, Elizabeth, who has been sterile all her life, is to conceive and have a child....'" (Lk 1:5 etc.). "Once upon a time there was a maiden at prayer, and behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to her and said, `Hail Mary, full of grace, it's the Lord who's with thee.'" (Lk 1:26 etc.). "Once upon a time there was a man named Joseph and he was puzzled about his espoused wife being with child. And behold, an angel of the Lord appeared and said: `Don't be afraid to take Mary as your wife for what is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit'" (Mt 1:18 etc.).

At this time of the rolling year, even the media experience an irresistible urge to speak in Story. Every year it features the classical favorites like Amahl and the Night Visitors, Miracle on 34th Street, and especially A Christmas Carol. The evening news searches for one good “pearl of great price,” one good Christmas story "bearing tidings of good news to all the people," to balance off all the bad news of the day and of the fast-departing old year. And oh, what bad news do we need to balance off this year of 2001! -- bad news as mountainous as the debris of bodies and buildings at Ground Zero.

A story

We’re going to practice now what we preach; we’re going to ”cut the words” and tell the Story. Here is one such "pearl of great price," which graced the front page of the Milwaukee Journal for Saturday, December 8th, 1984. It happened two days before, on December 6^th, coincidentally the feast of good old St. Nick, so famous for gift giving.

That story begins as all good stories begin. "Once upon a time" there was a bus-driver, whom everyone likes and calls "Kojac." He's going west on Wisconsin Ave. It's about 3:30 in the afternoon and it's only l0 above zero. Enters a woman, and she is tattered and torn, and she's pregnant. She has no shoes on her feet! No shoes on her feet, mind you! School's out, and the bus is full of high school kids, and they're all making fun of her.

The bus pulls up to l24th and Blue Mound Road. A kid steps up to the front and is ready to get off. He's about fourteen years old -- just that "perfect" age when kids supposedly have no brains in their head, and supposedly are utterly selfish. "And then I saw the darnest thing I had ever seen in my life,” said the bus-driver. "The darnest thing! He had his shoes in his hand, and his feet were bare! And he says to this woman: `Here, Mam, you need them more than I do!' I cried," said the big strapping bus- driver. "I cried, and so did the woman!"

Well, the barefoot boy steps off the bus into the winter cold, Kojac wipes away the tears, and off he goes. But the story doesn’t die there. It comes to life again the next morning. The bus-driver is on his route as usual, and he arrives at 124th and Blue Mound Rd where the lad (Francis is his name) got off the day before. "And lo and behold, an angel of the Lord appears," and there stands the boy again! "Kojac” dashes out, lays hold of the "angel,” pulls him over to his bus. There he captures the story with his camera, for stories, flesh and blood that they are, are to be looked at and gazed upon. The next day (Saturday, December 8th) the snapshot and story of "Big Kojac and Little Francis" anointed the front page of the Journal. The following morning (Sunday, December 9th), the story went forth by UPI to the entire nation, to be read and seen by all. Even President Reagan read the story and sent the boy a letter of thanks. By Sunday, hundreds and hundreds of others were joyfully weeping with Kojac.

After the snapshot, big Kojac gets back into his bus. He pulls out a long green handkerchief, blows his nose, wipes away the tears, and says, "That's Francis. He got me again!"

Francis, yes, Francis,

that's his name.

Milwaukee, Assisi

It was all the same!