Tipperary (Ireland). On 14 December 2024, at the Tipperary Conference Center, the Cosmological Group delle of the Daughters of Mary Auxiliary of the O. L. Queen of Ireland Province (IRL), which aims to raise awareness about the reality of the “common home” – organized a Conference in preparation for Christmas for the FMA and collaborators of the Province.
The presenter, Fr. Diarmuid O’Murchu, Missionary of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (MSC), developed the theme of Incarnation from the perspective of the ‘anointed’ one.
“Jesus, anointed by the Spirit, who also gives impulse to all that is created, ‘ex-profundis’, feeding the relational matrix in which all life flourishes”. (T&T Clarke, Cristologia spirituale, 2021)
“The Spirit of God fully at work from the dawn of creation, this same Spirit at the centre animating, creating and sharing life through all of creation. Incarnation equals embodiment and Jesus is the embodiment of our God with us. Jesus is understood as the affirmation, confirmation and celebration of all we have achieved as human beings”, affirmed Father Diarmuid.
He then quoted Pope Francis’ Laudato si’, stressing the importance of the deep connection between the human species and all nature: “When we talk about ‘environment’, we also refer to a particular relationship: the one between nature and the society that inhabits it. This prevents us from considering nature as something separate from us or as a mere frame for our life. We are included in it; we are part of it; and we are interwoven with it” (LS 139).
The participants were invited to give time to the work of the Spirit working in our evolutionary cosmos, understanding this deep evolutionary journey as the work of our God down through the ages. Celebrating this time of Incarnation at Christmas we were invited to reflect on this quote from Sallie McFague an American Christian Theologian:
“Thus, Christianity’s manner of making contact with the most basic physical, biological processes, is through an inclusive radical interpretation of its doctrine of the Incarnation, not now merely in one human being, Jesus of Nazareth, but in the world as God’s body….God is always incarnate, always bound to the world as its love, as close to it, as we are to our own bodies and concerned before all else to see that the body, God’s world, flourishes” (Sallie McFague, 2013, p. 173).
