|
A Word from the Associate&
And the Word Became Flesh
I recently saw an article that pondered the most significant events of human history. The article included a listing of candidates for the honor given by "experts" on such things. The invention of the wheel was noted, as was the founding of the Roman Empire, the first printing press, the splitting of the atom, the birth of Elvis Presley...
The Christian, with the benefit of divine revelation, knows that there is one event that makes every other event pale by comparison, one incredible moment that forever changed the life of everyone who was ever born, and everyone who ever will be born. It was that astonishing act by which the Creator became a part of His creation, the Author entered the story he was writing, the Unimaginably High became unbelievably low. We call this event the Incarnation, the enfleshment of God, and we celebrate it every year at Christmas.
We love to linger over the scenes of that awe-inspiring birth: the Holy Family searching for a place to stay, Mary big with child, the manger with its ox and donkey, the shepherds, the Three Kings, the star over Bethlehem. And so we should. It is a never-ending mystery that the King of the universe should come to us as a defenseless baby born into a poor family far from home. Yet even more mysterious and unimaginable than the fact that God came among us humbly, is the fact that He came among us at all. His coming has altered the fortunes of our race. We are no longer what we were. Everything has changed.
How? He has brought divinity, "God-ness," with him as a gift to us. He has merged in himself our smallness and His greatness, and he has lifted humanity to a place of lofty eminence, far beyond what we deserve, far beyond what we can quite get into our heads. St. Athanasius expressed it this way: "God became man that man might become God." St. Peter expressed the same truth when he wrote, "We have become partakers of the Divine nature." This is the tremendous truth that comes with Christmas: that when God joined himself to us, he not only took on humanity, but we also took on divinity.
And so now the stakes have been made higher, for all sons of Adam and daughters of Eve. Will we embrace the divine call that God has put before us, strive for the greatness of our true nature, rise to the dignity of our destiny? Or will we draw back through fear or pride, and hide from God and the greatness of His call to the human race? It is the only question of any importance that faces us. Everything hangs upon our answer.
"For unto us a child is born."
Fr. Michael Keating
|
|
