FACIAL RECOGNITION FOR CHRISTMAS

Last week I was walking through the deserted halls of our school building, when I met a young man pushing a dust mop - obviously working for our student-run maintenance corporation. Like me he was wearing a face mask.

He seemed vaguely familiar when I stared at him,  but after squinting at his partially covered face for a few seconds I finally said,

“Okay. I give up!  Who are you?”

“Terrance!” he said.

“Hey! Terrance! How are you! Sorry I didn't recognize you!”

It’s so frustrating when you can’t recognize someone because of their mask. Hold onto that thought for a moment.

For some weeks now we have been preparing for the birth of Christ: The church has been presenting us with messianic prophecies every day; we know many of them by heart. The words of the Advent hymns and antiphons have built up the suspense, The figure of John the Baptist stepped onto the stage on the Second Sunday of Advent. We’ve been lighting an additional candle on the Advent wreath for the past four Sundays. We’ve been singing “Soon and very Soon, We’re goin’ to see the King”

But finally Christmas has arrived, and what do we get? Take a look at the manger scene. Take a good look.

Where’s the King? Where is the savior of the Nations? Where is the Wonder-counselor, the Mighty God? The Everlasting Father? The Prince of Peace? All we see is a baby -- lying on a bed of straw, no less!

What a disappointment! This is God become Man? This is the Word become Flesh? Something is wrong here -- this is not the way God is supposed to look! He’s unrecognizable -- like Terrance in the hallway wearing his mask.

Let’s take a moment to look again at the manger scene. We can learn a lot there about God: One lesson is that God is very shy. Rather than risk overwhelming us with his majestic power and presence, God chose to come to us “veiled in flesh,” to make himself more approachable. But of course, the problem is that because of this, God often seems to be wearing a mask, and is difficult to recognize.

Is God really present in this Covid pandemic?

Is God really present in the divisiveness and the hatred that we see all around?

I don’t find it easy at all to recognize God present in the suffering of millions of people around the world.

Last week an article published in a scientific journal reported the results of research on the effect that face masks

have on our ability to recognize faces. It seems that our brain, which is so good at recognizing a face instantly, does not analyze individual features such as nose or eyebrows, but instead, it recognizes the entire face at once as a single pattern. This explains why we find it so difficult to recognize a familiar face on the basis of a single feature only -- say the eyes, and why it's so easy when we’re given an entire facial pattern to look at.

So, one great gift that we’re given by God at Christmas is the eyes of faith; we might call it the gift of divine facial recognition. With the eyes of faith we can look past the mask and recognize the pattern of God’s love working itself out in the world. With these eyes we can look at the baby lying in the manger and see the Second Person of the Trinity 

With these eyes we can look at our everyday frustrations and difficulties and recognize them as part of the pattern -- we recognize in them something of the mysterious face of our infinitely loving God. In the divisiveness and the hatred that we see all around us we can sense that somehow this is part of the pattern of God’s loving plan for the world.

Of course, it’s not easy at all to recognize God’s face in the suffering of millions of people around the globe, but the eyes of faith prepare us to believe that it is at least possible..

When I get discouraged and weary, and ask myself, “Is God really present in this Covid pandemic?” the eyes of faith will not reveal a nice clear picture of God’s love at work -- my ability to recognize facial patterns doesn’t go very far when it comes to the mysterious, infinite face of God.     

                                               

So, let’s turn one last time to the manger. God invites us to come to the stable this Christmas and gaze on Jesus, who is Love incarnate: With the eyes of faith we recognize the infant lying there as the sacrament, the physical presence of God’s tender loving care for the world. 

Look on the scene at Bethlehem with the eyes of faith, with your best pattern recognition skills, and then when you return your gaze to your everyday world, you may find that your eyes of faith will let you recognize some of the Pattern in even the most painful and absurd events.

During this unusual Christmas Season may you have the eyes to recognize all around you the face of a God who loves you and each one of us with love beyond our understanding -- and beyond our recognition.