Les textes du jour de Noël ne parlent pas de naissance. Nous
ne connaîtrions qu’eux pour savoir ce qu’est Noël, il ne viendrait à l’idée d’aucun
d’entre nous de parler de naissance. Et lorsque l’épître aux Hébreux parle d’un
fils, de l’engendrement du fils, elle n’envisage pas la naissance de Jésus à
Bethléem, mais sa résurrection, naissance à un monde nouveau, au « monde à
venir ».
« Le fils, qui porte l’univers par sa parole puissante,
après avoir accompli la purification des péchés, s’est assis à la droite de la majesté
divine dans les hauteurs des cieux ; […] Dieu déclara-t-il jamais à un
ange : Tu es mon Fils, moi, aujourd’hui, je t’ai engendré ? Ou bien
encore : Moi, je serai pour lui un père, et lui sera pour moi un fils ?
À l’inverse, au moment d’introduire le premier-né dans le monde à venir, il dit :
Que se prosternent devant lui tous les anges de Dieu. »
Il est une tradition néotestamentaire qui place l’engendrement
du fils à la croix, qui fait de la mort et de la résurrection de Jésus son
engendrement. La naissance de Jésus, il n’y avait pas grand monde pour y assister,
des bergers et des anges, selon Luc. Matthieu n’en dit rien. Viendront les
mages, un peu plus tard. Quant aux autres textes, aucun ne parle de la
naissance de Jésus.
Des anges, des mages, personnages littéraires. Il faudra se
contenter si l’on veut des témoins des seuls bergers, de Marie et Joseph. Jésus
naît comme tout le monde dans l’anonymat. C’est la vie de celui qui passait en faisant le bien qui le rendit
célèbre. Après sa condamnation, alors même que tous les siens l’avaient
abandonné, il y avait plus de monde pour assister à son exécution !
Un homme donc, dans sa mort, est engendré, reçoit le nom de fils
de la part de Dieu. A personne cela n’était arrivé, pas même à un ange qui, « à
l’inverse », reçoivent l’ordre de s’incliner devant ce fils d’homme.
On a craint dans cette théologie, un adoptianisme, Jésus ne
serait pas Dieu dès sa naissance, mais aurait été adopté par Dieu dans l’acte
de la résurrection. Je ne sais si ce risque altère la foi, mais l’on ne peut
rétrospectivement juger les écrits néo-testamentaires à l’aune de l’orthodoxie
définie quelques siècles plus tard. C’est plutôt la volonté de définir Jésus d’un
point de vue métaphysique ‑ qu’est-il vraiment ‑ qui pourrait
apparaître comme une impasse. Ce qu’est Jésus en soi et pour soi n’a pas de
sens ; d’une part, nous ne pouvons connaître le mystère divin, d’autre
part, lui qui est l’homme pour les autres, l’homme pour nous, comment
pourrions-nous le connaître en dehors de ce qu’il est pour nous ?
Dans ces vieux textes est confessé qu’un homme qui passait en faisant le bien, un homme
crucifié comme un criminel, est établi par Dieu comme son fils, c’est-à-dire
est ressuscité. Mieux, il est le premier-né, ce qui suppose qu’il aura des
cadets. « Ceux que
d’avance il a connus, il les a aussi prédestinés à être conformes à l’image de
son fils, afin que celui-ci soit le premier-né d'une multitude de frères. »
L’engendrement divin de Jésus indique la source du salut que les prophètes
avaient annoncée, comme nous l’avons entendu dans la première lecture. « Comme
ils sont beaux sur les montagnes les pas du messager, celui qui annonce la
paix, qui porte la bonne nouvelle, qui annonce le salut, et vient dire à Sion :
‟Il règne, ton Dieu !” » […] Éclatez en cris de joie, […] car le Seigneur
console son peuple. […] Tous les lointains de la terre ont vu le salut de notre
Dieu. »
S’il est possible de sortir des impasses mortelles de la vie
humaine, c’est qu’un homme est adopté par Dieu comme son fils et qu’ainsi tous,
par lui, sont tirés de leurs enfermements. Comment ne pas penser à tous ceux auxquels,
dans une assez grande indifférence, les projets de lois scélérates, préparés
par le ministre de l’intérieur et l’ensemble du gouvernement, se proposent dans
les faits de dénier la dignité humaine, sous prétexte que l’on ne pourrait pas
accueillir toute la misère du monde ! La loi entérine le piétinement des
droits de l’homme !
On pensera ce que l’on veut de l’accueil des migrants et
réfugiés, mais on ne peut les traiter comme des sous-hommes, les laisser à la
rue, les humilier, les chasser comme une vulgaire marchandise dont on ne veut
pas. D’accord ou non avec la fermeture des frontières, ce sont des hommes, des
femmes, des enfants. Nous avons le devoir de les traiter comme tels. Et à imaginer
cinq secondes leur vie, nous avons de quoi comprendre ce qu’est l’attente d’un
salut, ce que signifie être adoptés, comme les frères d’un premier-né.
Et si le père, c’est Dieu… Eh bien, c’est cela Noël. Ceux
que notre pays rejette sont la parabole de Noël. Un salut pour sortir des
impasses mortelles comme une bonne nouvelle criée à la terre entière, à pleins
poumons, pour que tous les peuples la connaissent. Dieu lui-même se fait le
père de l’homme, personne et communauté.
L’évangile de Jean le dit à sa façon, assez proche : « Il
est venu chez lui, et les siens ne l’ont pas reçu. Mais à tous ceux qui l’ont
reçu, il a donné de pouvoir devenir enfants de Dieu, eux qui croient en son
nom. Ils ne sont pas nés du sang, ni d’une volonté charnelle, ni d’une volonté
d’homme : ils sont nés de Dieu. Et le Verbe s’est fait chair, il a habité
parmi nous, et nous avons vu sa gloire. »
What birth is it that we are talking about?
Translated by Jean-François Garneau
Today’s liturgical texts tell us nothing about Jesus’ birth. Would these be the only texts we had to tell us what Christmas is, it would not occur to any of us to talk about Christ’s birth. And when the letter to the Hebrews speaks of a son, of the begetting of The Son, it does not envision the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, but his resurrection, birth to a new world, to the "world to come."
"The son, who gives substance to the universe through his mighty word, having accomplished the cleansing of sins, sits at the right hand of the divine majesty in the heights of heaven; [...] Was it ever to a mere angel that God said, "You are my Son, today I have begotten you? Or again: I will be for him a father, and he will be for me a son? On the contrary, when he introduces the first-born into the world to come, he says: "Be prostrate before him all of you, angels of God."
A New Testament tradition places the begetting of the son on the cross, and makes of Jesus’s death and resurrection the real moment of his begetting. The biological birth of Jesus, there were not too many people who attended it: shepherds and angels, according to Luke. Matthew has no such guests. The mages will come a little later. As for the other texts, none speak of the birth of Jesus.
Angels, magi: all are mere literary characters. If one insists for witnesses, one will need to satisfy oneself with mere shepherds, together with Marie and Joseph. Like almost all of us, Jesus is born in anonymity. It is his life as a do-gooder that made him famous. After his conviction, even though all his of his family had abandoned him, there were still more people to watch his execution than there had been at the time of his birth!
A man, therefore, in his death, is begotten, receives the name of son from God. To no one had this ever happened, not even to the mightiest of angels who, "conversely", were ordered to bow down to this “son of man”.
Many have feared a fall into mere adoptionism in this theology, i.e.: the idea that Jesus would not be God from birth, but would merely have been adopted by God in the act of resurrection. I do not know if this risk alters the faith, but we can not retrospectively judge the New Testament writings by the yardstick of the orthodoxy defined a few centuries later. It is rather the desire to define Jesus from a metaphysical point of view - what is he, really - that could appear as a dead end. What Jesus is in himself and for himself is meaningless; on the one hand, we can not know the divine mystery, on the other hand, he who is man for others, man for us all, how could we know him apart from what he is and was, for us?
In these old texts, what is being confessed is that a man who passed for doing good, was established by God as his son, that is, was resurrected, even though he had been crucified like a criminal. Better still, he is declared the firstborn, which supposes that he will have younger brothers from now on. "Those whom he knew beforehand, he also predestined them to conform to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn of many brethren." The divine begetting of Jesus indicates the source of salvation that the prophets had announced, as we heard in the first reading. "How beautiful are they, on the mountains, the steps of the messenger who announces peace, who brings the good news, who announces salvation, and comes to tell Zion,"He reigns, your God!" [...] Explode in shouts of joy, [...] for the Lord comfort his people. [...] All the far off of the earth have seen the salvation of our God."
If it is possible to get out of the deadly dead ends of mortal life, it is because a man was adopted by God as his son, and that all of us, through him, are drawn from our confinements. How can one not think, on this day, of all those against whom, in great indifference, rogue bills have been prepared by the Minister of the Interior and the entirety of his government. How can we not denounce the fact that these shocking laws are in fact intended to deny human dignity to these people, under the pretext that we could not welcome all the misery of the world! This law ratifies the trampling down of the rights of men!
We are fre to think whatever we want of the openness we should have towards migrants and refugees, but we can not treat them as sub-men, leave them in the street, humiliate them, chase them like a vulgar commodity that we do not want. Agree or not with the closing of our borders, they are men, women and children. We have a duty to treat them as such. And by simply empathizing five seconds with their lives, we have what’s needed to understand what it is to live in the expectation of salvation, and what it means to be adopted, like the brothers of a first-born.
And if the father in question is God ... Well, this is Christmas. Those whom our country rejects are the very parable of Christmas. A salute to get out of the deadly impasse, a good news shout out to the entire world, shouted at the top of one’s lungs, so that all the people of the earth learn it. That God Himself is the father of mankind, person and community.
The Gospel of John says just about the same thing in his own way: "He came to his own house, and his people did not welcome him. But to all who received him, he granted that they could become children of the Most High, they who believe in his name. For these generouys men, they are not born of blood, nor of a carnal will, nor of a man's will: they are born of God Himself. And that divine Word became flesh, He dwelt amongst us, and we have seen his glory."
What birth is it that we are talking about?
Translated by Jean-François Garneau
Today’s liturgical texts tell us nothing about Jesus’ birth. Would these be the only texts we had to tell us what Christmas is, it would not occur to any of us to talk about Christ’s birth. And when the letter to the Hebrews speaks of a son, of the begetting of The Son, it does not envision the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, but his resurrection, birth to a new world, to the "world to come."
"The son, who gives substance to the universe through his mighty word, having accomplished the cleansing of sins, sits at the right hand of the divine majesty in the heights of heaven; [...] Was it ever to a mere angel that God said, "You are my Son, today I have begotten you? Or again: I will be for him a father, and he will be for me a son? On the contrary, when he introduces the first-born into the world to come, he says: "Be prostrate before him all of you, angels of God."
A New Testament tradition places the begetting of the son on the cross, and makes of Jesus’s death and resurrection the real moment of his begetting. The biological birth of Jesus, there were not too many people who attended it: shepherds and angels, according to Luke. Matthew has no such guests. The mages will come a little later. As for the other texts, none speak of the birth of Jesus.
Angels, magi: all are mere literary characters. If one insists for witnesses, one will need to satisfy oneself with mere shepherds, together with Marie and Joseph. Like almost all of us, Jesus is born in anonymity. It is his life as a do-gooder that made him famous. After his conviction, even though all his of his family had abandoned him, there were still more people to watch his execution than there had been at the time of his birth!
A man, therefore, in his death, is begotten, receives the name of son from God. To no one had this ever happened, not even to the mightiest of angels who, "conversely", were ordered to bow down to this “son of man”.
Many have feared a fall into mere adoptionism in this theology, i.e.: the idea that Jesus would not be God from birth, but would merely have been adopted by God in the act of resurrection. I do not know if this risk alters the faith, but we can not retrospectively judge the New Testament writings by the yardstick of the orthodoxy defined a few centuries later. It is rather the desire to define Jesus from a metaphysical point of view - what is he, really - that could appear as a dead end. What Jesus is in himself and for himself is meaningless; on the one hand, we can not know the divine mystery, on the other hand, he who is man for others, man for us all, how could we know him apart from what he is and was, for us?
In these old texts, what is being confessed is that a man who passed for doing good, was established by God as his son, that is, was resurrected, even though he had been crucified like a criminal. Better still, he is declared the firstborn, which supposes that he will have younger brothers from now on. "Those whom he knew beforehand, he also predestined them to conform to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn of many brethren." The divine begetting of Jesus indicates the source of salvation that the prophets had announced, as we heard in the first reading. "How beautiful are they, on the mountains, the steps of the messenger who announces peace, who brings the good news, who announces salvation, and comes to tell Zion,"He reigns, your God!" [...] Explode in shouts of joy, [...] for the Lord comfort his people. [...] All the far off of the earth have seen the salvation of our God."
If it is possible to get out of the deadly dead ends of mortal life, it is because a man was adopted by God as his son, and that all of us, through him, are drawn from our confinements. How can one not think, on this day, of all those against whom, in great indifference, rogue bills have been prepared by the Minister of the Interior and the entirety of his government. How can we not denounce the fact that these shocking laws are in fact intended to deny human dignity to these people, under the pretext that we could not welcome all the misery of the world! This law ratifies the trampling down of the rights of men!
We are fre to think whatever we want of the openness we should have towards migrants and refugees, but we can not treat them as sub-men, leave them in the street, humiliate them, chase them like a vulgar commodity that we do not want. Agree or not with the closing of our borders, they are men, women and children. We have a duty to treat them as such. And by simply empathizing five seconds with their lives, we have what’s needed to understand what it is to live in the expectation of salvation, and what it means to be adopted, like the brothers of a first-born.
And if the father in question is God ... Well, this is Christmas. Those whom our country rejects are the very parable of Christmas. A salute to get out of the deadly impasse, a good news shout out to the entire world, shouted at the top of one’s lungs, so that all the people of the earth learn it. That God Himself is the father of mankind, person and community.
The Gospel of John says just about the same thing in his own way: "He came to his own house, and his people did not welcome him. But to all who received him, he granted that they could become children of the Most High, they who believe in his name. For these generouys men, they are not born of blood, nor of a carnal will, nor of a man's will: they are born of God Himself. And that divine Word became flesh, He dwelt amongst us, and we have seen his glory."
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