Kenosis and hiddenness. A paradox for the Christian

Abstract

It must have been a happy moment for his mother and her husband. Two-score days after his birth, an event already full of awe and mystery, and acknowledged and adored by those whom today we have come to call ‘those from the peripheries,’ he was brought to the Holy City. One of the anawim, the poor of the Almighty – those who were full of expectant hope – decidedly called the infant “a sign of contradiction.” He had been waiting for that moment, that kairos, all his life. From his birth, the child was embraced with paradox. Paradox would also be the “portion and cup” of his followers. They, too, would indeed be women and men embraced by paradox. The second-century apologetic patristic text which goes by the name of the Epistle to Diognetus affirms in very clear terms their way of life. If they were to be authentic followers of his, they too would be stamped with the indelible seal which bears the words “a sign of contradiction.”