The Third Sunday in Advent -- Leonardo Boff

A Reflection on Leonardo Boff’s The Man Who Is God (pp. 165-7)

I remember saying to my grandma one day in church: “So, why did Jesus live so long ago? Why didn’t God have him born here and now, where we are, so that we could meet him? And why did he live in this strange and weird desert where there were camels and locusts, and where people wouldn’t even find a room for Mary and Joseph to have their baby?”

Theologians call it the “scandal of particularity”: God becoming human at one place and time in history. It is scandalous to the philosophical mind. We like to think of God as being the universal truth for all humanity, indeed for the entire cosmos; so why would he choose to disclose himself in this obscurely particular way?

I don’t pretend to have an answer to that question. What I can say, though, is that it seems to have worked! From that bewilderingly bizarre beginning, the good news of God in Christ has managed to reach every continent and now claims billions of adherents. The particular has become universal, or nearly so.

Maybe what is true of children is also true of the rest of us: we learn concretely. We need to have God come to us in the individuality of a living, breathing, real person. By seeing how Jesus lived his particular life we have an immediate and tangible example of how God wants us to live ours. Abstract truths are too remote to grab ahold of our hearts.

It is also true, of course, that while the truth of the Incarnation is that Jesus was a singular human being who lived in an historical moment, the truth of the Resurrection is that the risen Christ is in all places, peoples and times. Christ assured his disciples that he is hidden behind the face of every human being who longs for wholeness (Matt 25:31-46), and that we can always meet him in our neighbor in need. He is present too any time two or three gather in His name, just as He is present in Scripture and the breaking of the bread.

So, paradoxically, Jesus is both particular and universal. That is something to pray about -- and give thanks for -- this Advent! 

Leonardo Boff (b. 1938) is a Brazilian theologian and writer, identified with the liberation theology movement. He currently serves as Professor Emeritus of Ethics, Philosophy of Religion, and Ecology at the Rio de Janeiro State University.

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