In UFO-logy, it takes at least three metrics on the paranormal scale that may perhaps make you a credible source in this field of study. Capture a sighting of an object of unknown origin, provide further evidence of its existence, and then the ultimate — have a personal encounter with it.
For many, the 1977 Academy-Awarding winning sci-fi of Steven Spielberg’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” expanded the paranormal vernacular. As curious and bizarre close encounters with the unknown may seem, hopefully it can give us pause and draw us to divine, supernatural encounters that matter most in our lives of faith.
Here in the present moment, we pray amid the festive activities the Catholic Watchmen’s monthly intention for December, focusing on close and deep encounters with our Lord: “For the blessings of this Holy Christmas season, that all families, and especially those of our archdiocese, deeply encounter the child Jesus as given by the example of the first holy, domestic church.”
The book of Genesis gives us a sense of the divine closeness that God allowed Adam and Eve to have with him. That closeness, however, our first parents eventually lost through the encounter with the serpent and its temptations — causing The Fall. Still today, there are similar temptations to disobedience in our fallen nature. But the Advent and Christmas season come again to bless us with the time to prepare and to celebrate the joy of the coming of the Christ child. He is the baby our Blessed Mother and St. Joseph raised in wisdom and strength in the first, holy domestic church.
Restoring such a divine opportunity to experience closeness to God — through the birth of Jesus — is the true gift of Christmas. The closest encounter with the divine is unsurpassed in wonder, greatness and glory. “Rejoice in the Lord always, I shall say it again rejoice! … Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts in Christ Jesus” (Phil 4:4, 7). Tucked between those verses, the Apostle Paul told his Christian brethren to give thanks to God in their prayer requests and petitions. It is reassuring to know from sacred Scripture that he experienced encounters of the most divine kind.
The first Apostles and witnesses of Jesus may be gone, but they left us the sacraments, sacred Scripture, divine-driven traditions and writings of Church fathers, teachers and preachers. Now, there are even a few good Christmas multimedia varieties to help encounter our Lord at the start of this new liturgical year. All of this helps us remind each other as family that God, fully human and fully divine in nature as Jesus, came to see us. He came as one of us — as a child. The Mass, holy Communion and adoration with the Blessed Sacrament in particular help manifest the sanctifying grace that opens our hearts to recognize and encounter the real presence of Jesus.
This is the most divine kind of encounter between the natural and the supernatural — yes, even beyond the paranormal — that we could have faith in and hope for. It is time well spent, year-round, to help us better engage, understand and learn of the love God has for us. Heaven-bound is our path — pressing on by the grace of God — to embrace the ultimate closeness to him who created us and all things.
Deacon Bird ministers at St. Joseph in Rosemount and All Saints in Lakeville, and assists with the archdiocese’s Catholic Watchmen movement. Learn more about the Catholic Watchmen at archspm.org/faith-communities/men.
