CHRISTMAS 2013
When PERFECT merges with the Imperfect!
by Frank Savadera, SJ

There’s a website now being promoted on FACEBOOK that talks about the most popular quotes for the entire year.   Some of the quotes I really find interesting:  Who wouldn’t forget the quip of a drunken tv host and actress ... who after coming out of the ladies’ room (in a posh place which I haven’t visited) was just so provoked in blurting out:   I CAN BUY YOU ... YOUR FRIENDS and this CLUB!  Or Philippine senators using their privileged positions to hurl words against each other ...  accusing one another as:  WALA ka NG ASIM!   You may wish to come up with your own list.

Words ... words ... truly define us.  And the word that defines us and this generation ... this year ...   according to the Meriam-Webster dictionary is ...  the WORD    SELFIE!  That word speaks so much about us already!  We view our Facebook accounts, our profile pictures and recognize SELFIE SELFIE SELFIE!  Sometimes, I just check my TIMELINE and tell myself ... O my ... SELFIE is all about me.   

Words truly define us ... isn’t this true?  And this is the reason why we are different from animals and other species in the planet because we can speak.  We can formulate words and statements that express what we feel, what we mean, what we hope for.  Our words therefore can either be HURTFUL to others ... causing people great emotional agony, pain and even anger  ... or words can also be very inspiring, especially when you're able to put them together into lines that are truly meant, sincere and consoling. UN Secretary General Banki Moon while visiting typhoon devastated areas in Leyte dropped real and consoling words:  THE WORLD IS BEHIND YOU!  

To complicate things a bit however, we say that there is a paradox to how we express human words.  No matter how much you wish to be consoling, our words can also be taken differently.  For instance, there is an article about how to answer or parry statements made during Christmas parties and reunions.  Example:  “Father, pumayat ka ba?”   “O bakit hindi ka pa nag-aasawa?” People like to greet each other ... and exchange pleasantries.  But no matter how much our intent is to greet or console or even explain our situations in life, our imperfect and limited words will always fail us.  And so what do we mean when we say I LOVE YOU!  I UNDERSTAND YOU!  MERRY CHRISTMAS!  We know that these words are well meant ... but these words are words that struggle hard to be perfect!   And worst, we are sometimes even LOST for words to explain the things happening around us.  Isn’t this part of being human.  We enter therefore into what we may call the LIMITS and AMBIVALENCE OF HUMAN WORDS.  What we mean and what we say are often confused.  And this reflects very much how it is to be HUMAN ... IMPERFECT and CONFUSED.   There is ambivalence to how it is to be TRULY HUMAN.  A scholastic theologian explains this AMBIVALENCE  as he describes man as a composite of a MATERIAL BODY, a SPIRIT and a SOUL.  We are not purely material.  We are not also purely SPIRIT.  Halo halo tayo ... and so these components of the human person pull us to different directions ... they all struggle deep within us.        

I think this is the context as to how we are asked to celebrate Christmas each year and every day.  Amidst the ambivalence of the human situation, the limits and ambivalence of human words ... GOD’S OWN WORD HAD BECOME FLESH ... AND DWELT AMONG US.   The PERFECT WORD had opted to FUSE ITSELF with the IMPERFECT and the AMBIVALENT which is us.  I think this is what we mean when we say how that PERFECT LIGHT comes and battles its way against the elements of darkness and ambivalence.  Our analogies will always fail us.  Can you imagine mixing and stirring powdered coffee into a glass of water.   That glass of water is never the same again. THERE IS A GOD WHOSE PERFECTION MERGES WITH OUR LIMITED AND AMBIGUOUS and AMBIVALENT HUMAN EXISTENCE.  And we are never the same again. That presence had dwelt among us ... and is forever with us.    Christmas tells us therefore that there is hope beyond our imperfections and that hope is amongst us ... and we celebrate.