Friday, December 27, 2024:  Born Under Oppression

Writer and activist Kelley Nikondeha reminds us of the location of Jesus’ birth in occupied territory:  


Advent narratives reveal the Incarnation as more than the Spirit entering a human frame. They are also the revelation of The Spirit  engaging with human trauma of a specific place and specific people. The Spirit experienced the excruciating reality of empires and economies from the position of the weak and powerless ones. The Spirit absorbed loss and pain in that body.  


The Incarnation positions Jesus among the most vulnerable people, the bereft and threatened of society. The first advent shows The Spirit wrestling with the struggles common to many the world over. And from this disadvantaged stance, Jesus lives out The Spirit’s peace agenda as a counter-testimony to Caesar’s imperial peace imposed on people through terror, cruelty and slaughter. [1] 



Liberation theologian Gustavo Gutiérrez (1928–2024) encourages us to reflect on the implications of Jesus being born as part of an oppressed community:  


There, on the fringe of society, “the Word became history, contingency, solidarity, and weakness; but we can say, too, that by this becoming, history itself, our history, became Word.” [2]  


It is often said at Christmastime that Jesus is born into every family and every heart. But these “births” must not make us forget the primordial, massive fact that Jesus was born of Mary among a people that at the time were dominated by the greatest empire of the age. If we forget that fact, the birth of Jesus becomes an abstraction, a symbol, a cipher.… To the eyes of Christians the incarnation is the irruption of The Spirit into human history: an incarnation into littleness and service in the midst of the overbearing power exercised by the mighty of this world; an irruption that smells of the stable…. 


It is in the concrete setting and circumstances of our lives that we must learn to believe: under oppression and repression but also amid the struggles and hopes that are alive … under dictatorships that sow death among the poor, and under the “democracies” that often deal unjustly with their needs and dreams. [3]  


Nikondeha shares the empowering hope of incarnation:  


This is the story of advent: we join Jesus as incarnations of The Spirit’s peace on this earth for however long it takes. The Spirit walks in deep solidarity with humanity, sharing in our sufferings and moments of hope. Amid our hardship, The Spirit is with us. Emmanuel remains the name on our lips in troubled times.  


Advent isn’t the acceptance of status-quo peace, but an incarnation of The Spirit’s peace that we live in the world. The peacemakers formed by advent are those who resist empire, who practice hospitality with neighbors, and who enter into solidarity with The Spirit in the work of liberation for everyone.  


May there be calm, bright nights ahead for the peacemakers, the meek, and all people The Spirit accompanies through advent still.





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