Where does the Trinitarian gaze fall on this Christmas 2017? Where does the incarnation take place? In the sinking boats of the Rohingya community, disowned by Myanmar, chased away by India and welcomed by a fragile country like Bangladesh? In the unending warzones of Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq? In the blood of martyrs like Pansare, Kalburgi, Dabholkar, Gauri? On the unknown faces of those lynched by the cow-vigilantes? Indeed the Trinity chose to reach our intimate and vulnerable depths, in the fragility of a helpless Babe. Incarnation takes place in the intimacy and vulnerability of the earthy human depths.

Incarnation invites us to become human, as God did, and it is a never-ending process. It began 13.5 billion years ago in the birth pangs of the Big Bang of love. Ever since then, it has been evolving, becoming human. Inhuman inversions slow it down to the freezing point. Yet the evolving energy of ‘fiat’ continues to advance it and makes it present everywhere. So much so, St. John of the Cross had the audacity to say, “All things are God.” (Laudato si: 234) In this universe none is superfluous. The entire material uni¬verse speaks of God’s love, his boundless affec¬tion for us. Soil, water, mountains: everything is, as it were, a caress of God (Laudato si: 84). We are invited to a global and universal solidarity as everything and everyone is inter-related and inter-dependent. Incarnation is an act of weaving together a new kind of solidarity, where everyone is included; none excluded.

“As never before in history, common destiny beckons us to seek a new beginning… Let ours be a time remembered for the awakening of a new reverence for life, the firm resolve to achieve sustainability, the quickening of the struggle for justice and peace, and the joyful celebration of life.” (Earth Charter, The Hague, 29 June, 2000) That is Christmas: birthing hope in the midst of despair; birthing love in the face of divisive ideology; incarnating inclusion wherever there is exclusion.

George Pattery, SJ

The author is the former Provincial of Calcutta Province and former President of the Jesuit Conference of South Asia (POSA).