Lately, I was struck by an interesting comment made by a talented radio presenter. Live on a radio programme he said that Jesus was born not out of love but out of a miracle. He criticised the phrase found in a Maltese hymn “frott l-imħabba” (the fruit of love) because, according to his point of view, Jesus was not born out of a sexual relationship between a normal man and a woman. Rather, he was miraculously conceived.
On one level, this presenter is perfectly right. In fact, in the Annunciation account, when replying to the question Mary justly posed to him, namely, “How shall this be, since I have no husband?” (Luke 1, 34), the angel Gabriel told her: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God” (Luke 1, 35). The Gospel is crystal clear. Jesus’ birth is miraculous.
But, my question is, can we merely limit love to its physical expression? What about those circumstances where sexual relations are not permissible either because of one’s health or due to the obligations incumbent on one’s vocational status? Can we then say that that person cannot love? Here, human reason is surely calling the providential help of faith to further investigate the meaning of love.
In his first and prophetic encyclical ‘Deus Caritas Est’, Pope Benedict XVI distinguishes between two kinds of love: Eros and agape. Eros is “that love between man and woman which is neither planned nor willed, but somehow imposes itself upon human beings” (§ 3). On the other hand, agape “expresses the experience of a love which involves a real discovery of the other, moving beyond the selfish character that prevailed earlier (in eros). Love now becomes concern and care for the other. No longer is it self-seeking, a sinking in the intoxication of happiness; instead it seeks the good of the beloved: It becomes renunciation and it is ready, and even willing, for sacrifice (§ 6).
Within the same number of the encyclical the Holy Father further explains that “love is indeed ‘ecstasy’, not in the sense of a moment of intoxication, but rather as a journey, an ongoing exodus out of the closed inward-looking self towards its liberation through self-giving, and thus towards authentic self-discovery and indeed the discovery of God: ‘Whoever seeks to gain his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it’ (Lk 17:33), as Jesus says throughout the Gospels (cf. Mt 10:39; 16:25; Mk 8:35; Lk 9:24; Jn 12:25)”.
Hence, Christmas is the feast of the incarnation of God’s self-giving love. It is the feast which reveals God’s inclusive, forgiving, fraternal and reconciling character which, historically speaking, assumed a human face in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. As blessed John Paul II said in his message for the celebration of the 33rd World Day For Peace, “at the dawn of the new Millennium, we wish to propose once more the message of hope which comes from the stable of Bethlehem: God loves all men and women on earth and gives them the hope of a new era, an era of peace. His love, fully revealed in the Incarnate Son, is the foundation of universal peace. When welcomed in the depths of the human heart, this love reconciles people with God and with themselves, renews human relationships and stirs up that desire for brotherhood capable of banishing the temptation of violence and war”.
Jesus was born out of love which gives itself to the end!
■ Fr Mario Attard OFM Cap
San Ġwann