Yes, this is the message of Christianity - but not all of it. We're wrong if we think that Jesus is no longer physically with us. Fr. Ronald Rolheiser says "What is wrong with this?....Where it is wrong is that it gives the impression that the incarnation was a thirty-three year experiment, a one-shot incursion by God into human history. In this version, God came to earth physically and then, after thirty-three years, went back home. It uses the past tense for the incarnation, and that is a dangerous under-understanding. The incarnation is still going on, and it is just as real and as radically physical as when Jesus of Nazareth, in the flesh, walked the dirt roads of Palestine." (from "The Holy Longing.")
How can this be so? First of all, why would our mysterious God want to take on human flesh (the incarnation) and deal with human beings in a visible, tangible way? Fr. Rolheiser recounts a familiar story to remind us why:
"There is a marvelous story told about a four year old child who awoke one night frightened, convinced that in the darkness around her there were all kinds of spooks and monsters. Alone, she ran to her parents' bedroom. Her mother calmed her down and, taking her by the hand, led her back to her own room, where she put on a light and reassured the child with these words: 'You needn't be afraid, you are not alone here. God is in the room with you.' The child replied: "I know that God is here, but I need someone in this room who has some skin.'"
Rolheiser comments "In essence, that story gives us the reason for the incarnation, as well as an excellent definition of it. God takes on flesh because, like this young girl, we all need someone with us who has some skin. A God who is everywhere is just as easily nowhere. We believe in what we can touch, see, hear, smell, and taste.....God, having created our nature, respects how it operates. Thus God deals with us through our senses. The Jesus who walked the roads of Palestine could be seen, touched, and heard. In the incarnation, God became physical because we are creatures of the senses who, at one point, need a God who has skin."
But - the incarnation continues! God's incarnational, physical, real presence is still here among us. Yes, in a certain manner of speaking, the physical body of Jesus left this earth, but the body of Christ did not. "Scripture uses the expression "The Body of Christ" to mean three things: Jesus, the historical person who walked this earth for thirty-three years; the Eucharist, which is also the physical presence of God among us; and the body of believers, which is also the real presence. To say the word 'Christ' is to refer, at one and the same time, to Jesus, the Eucharist, and the community of faith."
We Christian believers are the real, physical Body of Christ! St. Paul does not say that the body of believers replaces Christ's body, or that it represents Christ's body, or even that it is Christ's mystical body. He simply says "We are Christ's body." "The body of believers, like the Eucharist, is the Body of Christ in an organic way. It is not a corporation, but a body; not just a mystical reality, but a physical one; not something that represents Christ, but something that is him....The word did not just become flesh and dwell among us - it became flesh and continues to dwell among us. In the body of believers and in the Eucharist, God still has physical skin and can still be physically seen, touched, smelled, heard, and tasted." (Rolheiser.)
Are you blown away by this yet? Do you realize that, if you are a member of the Body of Christ, the body of believers, YOU MANIFEST GOD WITH SKIN ON? WE HAVE THE ABILITY AND THE CALL TO KEEP GOD PRESENT IN THE WORLD IN THE SAME WAY AS JESUS DID. In the story of the four year old girl and her mother, the mother, through her loving presence, was manifesting the physical presence of God for her daughter, WAS MANIFESTING "GOD WITH SKIN ON" because we are "God's physical hands, feet, mouthpiece, and heart in this world." (Rolheiser)
When we, as Christians, pray prayers of petition, and when we pray "through Christ", we are praying through the Body of Christ, which includes Jesus, the Eucharist, and the body of believers, all of whom are Christ. So we are not only asking God to act, we are also charging ourselves, as part of the Body of Christ, to bear some responsibility for answering this prayer. "To pray as a Christian demands concrete involvement in trying to bring about what is pleaded for in the prayer." (Rolheiser.)
So, if we pray that God feed the hungry, we'd best be contributing to the Food Bank, a food pantry, etc. If we pray for peace in the world, we'd best examine our own hearts for anger and violence. If we pray for reconciliation in our family, we need to be the presence of Christ, trying to be a bridge for peace in our own capacity. "If I pray for a close friend today, but do not send him a postcard to tell him I am thinking about him, how is that prayer supposed to touch him?....Our prayer needs our flesh to back it up." (Rolheiser)
And if each of us has the power and the responsibility to "give God" to one another, to give our loving, healing, forgiving God to one another, the supreme place for this happening is in our families. Because God lives in a family, - a trinity! God IS family, shared existence. As Nikos Kazantzakis puts it "Wherever you find husband and wife, that's where you find God; wherever children and petty cares and cooking and arguments and reconciliation are, that is where God is too." If we manifest God in the world, so does the one who grew in our womb, the one who sleeps in our bed, the one in a hospital bed.
Fr. Rolheiser certainly believes in the power and blessings of pilgrimages, but he asks us to put them in perspective when we think that they are the supreme way to "get in touch" with God. He says "Why do we go on pilgrimages to holy places and not instead sit barefoot and feel the holiness of the soil of the earth? Why do we go to places like Lourdes and Fatima, to see where the Blessed Virgin might have cried, and not notice the tears in the eyes of the person sitting across the family table from ourselves?Why are we all enthralled by a person like Padre Pio, who carried the wounds of Jesus in his hands and feet, and blind to the wounds of Christ in the face of the emotionally needy person we so much try to avoid?.... To be involved in the normal flow of life, giving and receiving, as flawed and painful as this might be at times within any relationship, is to have the life of God flow through us."
Human relationships ARE religious experiences! When we realize that Christ, working in US, loves others, heals others, forgives others, lets his power flow through us, through our flesh, - it seems almost too good to believe! But, believe it to the core of your being. When we recognize that the incarnation continues to the end of time, that God is so very, very good, we know that Christmas carols can be sung throughout the year: "Joy to the world! The Lord has come!"