During the Christmas season, we often experience a tension between Christians who have a more conservative outlook and those who take a more liberal or progressive attitude. On the one hand, we have conservatives focusing on Jesus as an object of attention and adoration. "Put the Christ back in Christmas," they plead, upset when everyday folks seem to forget the "reason for the season." Progressives, on the other hand, focus on using the Christmas season to promote a more generalized stance of peace and harmony in the world. They point to Mary's prophesy (the "Magnificat"), where she exclaims that God - through Jesus - will "bring down rulers from their thrones but lift up the humble," "filling the hungry with good things, but sending the rich away empty" (Luke 1: 53).
In other words, progressives tend to look at THE WORLD through Jesus' eyes, rather than gaze at HIM as an object of attention. That is, they seek to incarnate his state of mind. Hence the phrase - popular among progressives - "Christ-Consciousness." In a nutshell, conservatives focus on the individuality of Jesus as an object of praise, while progressives look at the entire web of of beings through Christ's eyes in a way that focuses on social justice for all.
Is there a way, I often wonder, to bring these two perspectives together? Other people will have their own way of doing this, but here is MY way of harmonizing these opposites.
Whenever I spend time hiking and photographing in the redrock canyon country of the Southwest, I notice a fascinating phenomenon. When the sun shines directly on a canyon wall, it tends to wash out the color. However, when the light bounces off that surface and reflects on the opposite wall, it takes on a rich, subtle glow - usually red, orange or gold. It is the reflected light rather than the direct light that is most beautiful, and it is this that interests a photographer the most.
Speaking metaphorically, we might say that when we focus the light of attention and praise directly on the presence of Christ - his birth, his unique personality and his ministry - we are shining the sunlight of awareness directly on one of those canyon walls. However, when we do this, Jesus - in his humility and self-emptying - immediately deflects the light away from himself and focuses it on the world instead; that is, on the opposite canyon wall. In other words - through Jesus' humility - individual people, various cultures, and the multitude of religions and philosophies of the world, as well as Nature with all of her species and ecosystems, all take on a rich and subtle coloring. Thus, in the mystical logic of crazy wisdom, the more we try to focus attention on the uniqueness and individuality of Jesus, the more we are led by him to focus on the beauty of the world, rather than on him.
How amazing! It is Jesus' attitude of humility and self-emptying that makes me love and appreciate him all the more.
Photo: Slot canyon, the Joint Trail; Needles District, Canyonlands National Park, UT; November 25, 2012
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