Psychologies Magazine, December 2002 —
The Christmas trees and garlands in store windows remind us that Christmas is approaching. We begin to buy gifts and decorate our homes, but very few, even among practicing Christians, are aware of the deep spiritual meaning of this religious holiday that is at the origin of the Western calendar. Of course, we all know that a little over two thousand years ago, a certain Jesus, son of Joseph and Mary, was born in Galilee, whom his disciples considered after his death to be the "only Son" of God. We have in mind the legendary stories surrounding his birth in a stable, the presence of the Magi, shepherds, and angels.
But celebrating Christmas does not only mean honoring the birth of Jesus Christ. For the theologians of early Christianity, the birth of the "Son of God" echoes a second birth: that of God in the heart of every human being. If Christ came into the world, it is so that every man may have access to divine life, which Saint Irenaeus sums up in this admirable formula: "God became man so that man might become God." Christians thus speak of a "second birth" which takes place by the "grace" of God, when man opens his heart to him. Jesus explains this to Nicodemus, a doctor of the law: "Unless one is born from above, one cannot see the Kingdom of God" (John 3:3). Saint Paul associates this second birth with a "conversion", that is to say a change of life: "You must abandon your former way of life and put off the old man which is being corrupted by deceptive desires, to be renewed by a spiritual transformation of your judgment and to put on the New Man" (Ephesians, IV, 22).
This idea that we must be reborn through spiritual regeneration is present in almost all of humanity's religious traditions, even those that make no reference to a personal God and his grace. The Buddha's fundamental experience, that of awakening, constitutes the very archetype of an inner rebirth, in which the veil of ignorance is torn away. This transformative experience can take place suddenly, as for Shakyamuni Buddha, or gradually, through successive "illuminations." Whether sudden or gradual, these inner rebirths allow us to overcome the illusions and traps of our ego, to reconcile ourselves deeply with ourselves, with others and with the world. And this regardless of the adversities encountered. This is what Etty Hillesum, the young Jewish woman who died at Auschwitz on November 30, 1943, expressed very well. She wrote in her last letter, August 18, 1943 (in “Une vie remuee: journal”, Seuil, 1995): “The swell of my heart has grown larger since I have been here, more animated and more peaceful at the same time, and I have the feeling that my inner richness is constantly increasing.”
December 2002