A God of Incredible Surprise: Essay

Haris Takes

Multicultural Faces of Jesus

9/29/16

A God of Incredible Surprise: Essay

Elizondo opens up many new perspectives on how people, especially Mexican Americans, view Jesus in his book, A God of Incredible Surprise. Through the gospels, Elizondo explains many important Mexican traditions of Christianity, and goes into depth on many of them, from ‘New Humanity’ to ‘Restored Innocence.’ This work emphasizes many traditional Catholic teachings. The teachings are shown as Elizondo relates his life and the lives of many other Mexican Americans to the life of Jesus, and the similar struggles that they have been through.

        The way Elizondo compares his life and the lives of many other immigrants to Jesus’ upbringing is what really stood out to me. He changed the perspective of how I view Jesus in a major way. I have been taught my whole life that Jesus was a perfect human being who was the Son of God, and was raised by the Virgin Mary. I had no knowledge of the real upbringing of Jesus that Elizondo represents perfectly.

“A baby born in the dirty and messy stable, laid in the manger among the stink of animals” (35). The story of Jesus’ birth in this book is what changed my perspective. Again, I pictured this story just like what we see at Christmas mass, a beautiful manger with angels and wise men. In reality Jesus was born in a dirty stable with animals, and was placed in a manger that they eat out of. In no way is that a special birth. Jesus experienced quite the “Troublesome Beginnings,” and Elizondo explains how we relate these “Troublesome Beginnings” to his life.

Elizondo shows Jesus’ life not as picturesque as many of the stories and gospel readings that portray Jesus’ life. He makes him out to be a boy who was born into poverty and suffered many of the same things that Mexican Americans are going through today. Jesus had a different accent than most of his peers in Nazareth, and was discriminated for that. Mexican immigrants are also discriminated in some ways because of their accent, which makes Jesus and the immigrants relatable. “He was a marginal Jewish Galilean peasant and would probably speak within the speech patterns of such a person with a mixed language like our own Tex-Mex” (60). People who are different among larger cultures (like Mexicans living in America) are often ridiculed for having different languages, traditions, and skin color. Both Jesus and these immigrants suffered these discriminations.

This concept that Jesus was marginalized just like Mexican immigrants living in our country today helped me clarify my own beliefs and values. I grew up in a small town of 3,000 people in Iowa. When I was about ten Mexican immigrants started moving to our town from larger cities like Chicago and Kansas City. Since it was a small town many people weren’t used to having different cultures among us, and resulted in discrimination. I was not involved in it directly, but there were times when I didn’t like the idea of the immigrants living in my town. I did see directly how discrimination affected a group of people. After reading Elizondo my perspective changed.

I am a Catholic and believe in God and Jesus, so for someone to say Jesus was a poor peasant (and had solid proof to back it up) like some of the immigrants living in my town, really changed my perspective, and should change the perspective of closed minded Catholics. It shows us that no matter what a person’s status is, they are still loving, caring, and holy. Jesus’ life is a great example of how this is true. He was the holiest human to ever walk earth, but was marginalized by people around him. After going to school and getting to know many of these immigrants in my town, I realized it was foolish to classify someone based on their race, and realized that they are just like any other American citizen.

One section that really stood out to me in A God of Incredible Surprise was Elizondo’s views on ‘Restored Innocence.’ Guilt, resentment, God’s mercifulness, and forgiveness are what make this section stand out. Elizondo says, “guilt and resentment are two of the most aggressive cancers of the soul and probably a great factor in the various diseases of the body” (71). Guilt and resentment, explained in the story of the bag lady at Grand Central Station is a perfect example of how memories and actions from the past can haunt a person for a lifetime. This passage is scary to think about, because one event or one memory that can’t be forgotten about could cause problems that last years. Not only do they cause physical sicknesses, but also mental sicknesses that are harder to heal, and that is evident through the story of the woman at Grand Central Station.