Advent Week 4: Bringing Christ to Birth
This Advent, Call To Action has asked four different people to write a reflection on how they bring Christ to birth. While each is unique and personal, their words can expand our understandings and stir our own imaginations. This Advent let us ruminate with this question: how do I bring Christ to birth?
This reflection was co-authored by Jenn and Roger Reyes.
As a multi-cultural married couple we bring Christ to birth by allowing love to have the final word. All partnerships have their challenges because of the very nature of human relationships, but as a multi-cultural couple with two different native languages (English and Spanish), there are additional challenges we have to overcome. We often have misunderstandings in our communication due both to language and cultural differences. We have different world views having grown up in two very different countries (the U.S. for Jennifer and Peru for Roger). We have different expectations, of one another and in interactions with others. Through each of these challenges that we encounter on a daily or weekly basis, we bring Christ to birth in our relationship when we are able to overcome any division, disagreement, miscommunication, or hurt and allow love to have the final word. God is love, and Christ is God’s love incarnate, and we get to participate in that incarnational love every time we honor the presence of the divine in the other and live out our commitment to one another that no matter what, love will have the final word in our lives and relationship.
When we were choosing readings for our wedding ceremony, we wanted to reflect the continuum of what it means to be a human being created in the image and likeness of God and called to live in relationship with the other. Our gospel reading was Matthew 25, the final judgment. And in reflecting on this passage the priest who married us said that as husband and wife we are called to treat one another as Christ, to acknowledge that holy presence and nurture that holy presence in one another. That is the test. How we give honor to God by loving and honoring one another. And we try to hold onto that message and challenge both during the good and bad times, in sickness and health, for richer or poorer.
Some of the ways we act as Christ to one another, and thus bring Christ to birth as a couple, are by being there for the other with a word of support and encouragement when needed; spending time together sharing our thoughts and concerns, hopes and dreams; when we make a favorite Peruvian plate of food to share; or when we come home to a clean house or someone did an extra chore; when one of us is at the store and sees a favorite candy of the other and surprises them; or when we take care of one another in times of sickness. One of our commitments to one another made early on, is no matter how mad we might be at the other, we never leave the house without a beso (kiss goodbye) and a te amo (I love you). We know that whatever temporary challenge or disagreement we are facing, our love and commitment runs much deeper than that and this little action reminds us that our love will always have the final word.
As a multi-cultural couple we also get to rejoice in the richness of our diversity in sharing our cultures with one another. We are both musicians, and first started to build our relationship in Peru through music, with Roger teaching Jenn Peruvian church songs on her flute. To this day we enjoy sharing a new song we found whether in English or Spanish with the other, and having bi-lingual karaoke parties in our basement with friends. We get to expand our holiday celebrations with traditions from both Jenn’s family and Roger’s family, and share those traditions with extended family. We have a variety of dishes that we enjoy cooking and sharing with one another. Peruvians know how to have a great party, and we love hosting friends for music and dancing in our home! Being in a multi-cultural partnership we get to participate in the variety of ways that God shows up in the world through different cultures and traditions, and grow in our own knowledge, experience, and faith.
While there are many challenges we face in our marriage, there are just as many blessings. We are grateful to God for crossing our paths and bringing us together, so that together in our marriage and our daily lives, we can continue to bring Christ to birth in the world through a love that is greater than any difference. We are reminded in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians that we are one body with many parts, and all of those parts have to work together for the body to be healthy and do what it needs to do. We may come from different parts of the world, but we are part of the same body of Christ, and working together we help that body and one another, to be and do our very best.
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Jennifer and Roger Reyes met in Peru in 2009 while Jennifer was serving in Chimbote, Peru as a lay missionary with the Incarnate Word Sisters. Roger is a native of Peru and was friends with the missionary community and directed the youth choir at the church Jennifer was serving at. They fell in love, and on July 22, 2011 were married in St. Louis, MO where they currently reside with their beloved and very spoiled dog Bella. Roger currently works as a Spanish teacher at a Montessori charter school and has a growing lawn care business. He is also a gifted musician and member of the Andean music group Masillajta. Jennifer has worked as the Administrator of the Office of Presiding Bishop for the Ecumenical Catholic Communion and as Assistant Director of the Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation Office for the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word. She has been a member of CTA’s Anti-Racism Team and is passionate about ending structural oppression and building communities of liberation.
