183- On the Importance of the Incarnation

The Incarnation is fundamental for our eternal survival.

If we are not inside the Father’s House, it is vital we return to it. Only the Son Incarnate, because He is altogether God and Man, can leave the Father’s House (so to speak) and come to seek us out and rescue us, carrying us in Him - and not only “on him” like the shepherd carrying a sheep - taking us back to the Father's House.

He is the Father's House.

Do we want to spend Eternity excluded from of the Father’s House, where there is darkness, fear and hatred?

Being part of the Father’s House is vital for each and every human being.

The Incarnation is the Father building His House for us: the Son Incarnate.

The Incarnation doesn’t end when the Lord is born of Mary. The Incarnation ends, or realises its mission, or raison d’être, on the Cross and in the Resurrection and Ascension. He reunites us in Him on the Cross. He causes us to us rise with Him. He introduces us in Him (he is the Father's House). He makes us to sit beside Him (so to speak) with the Father, and we shine like the sun (Matthew 13:43) and He serves us, in God’s Eternal Banquet.

"He Saves us” means He purifies us, enlightens us, unites us to Him, and enables us to contemplate Him with His own divine capacity and love Him also with the same divine capacity.

Without the Incarnation none of the above could happen.

He became one of us, so we can, by listening to his Saving Words, and entrusting ourselves to Him, become Divinised.

If we read the Song of Song of Solomon, we discover in hidden Words the enjoyment and delight we are called to have with the Son Incarnate.

According to St Luke, only "in Mary" we can discover the depths of the Love of God. This Ferociously powerful and tender Love for each one of us, so that that it made Him become like us (except for sin) and carry all our being and darkness, to the point that He appeared to have become sin. This He did so that He could get as close as possible to our free will, to offer us His Light and Love – “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me” (Rev 3:20).

It is from an extreme, incomprehensible powerful love that Incarnation has its explanation/origin. It is like an explosion of Love.

According to St Luke, only "in Mary" are we enabled to experience this Love in a lasting and secure way and grow in the experience of it.

The Incarnation allows us to have a share in God’s being, to experience His Being! Divine Humility. Divine Mercy. A mind-blowing overwhelming experience. Incarnation and its realisation (Passion-Death-Resurrection-Ascension) offer us the intimacy of God, like entering into the very bowels of His Merciful Being. The Incarnation continues till today since Jesus choosing to be in his fullness in his bride, continues to be among us, to preach, to give us his being, to transfigure us day after day. He is alive in Her and active through Her in the Holy Spirit. Incarnation continues to the very present time and will continue till the end of time.

Each one of us, having Christ in Him, being part of the Bride, continues and prolongs the Incarnation here in today’s world. If any person touches us physically, he or she is touching Jesus’ Body. This encompasses an even a greater Humility and Mercy from God. Our being is the prolongation of the Incarnation.

From us emanates the light and love of Jesus to the World.

30: The Spiritual Journey 4b/11

Hi Rufaro, thanks for the question you posted under "The Spiritual Journey 4a": “In your diagram, what do you mean by "culturally" ready to absorb our humanity?”

When I do mention this expression, I am speaking about the time when Jesus starts His Mission, at the age of 30. He is first Baptised. Here is how I did put it in the Diagram: “Baptism of Christ: at the age of 30 (see Luke 3:23), He starts His ministry. Christ is ready to receive us in Him. The Sponge is culturally and humanly ready to absorb our humanity.”

As I did mention in “The Spiritual Journey 2”, Jesus grows, in His human nature, as saint Luke says: “And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and men” (Luke 2:52). His Divine Nature doesn't grow, doesn't require any growth.

To Save us "out of love"

Since God wants to save us with His human nature, considering His Human Nature as a noble living “tool”* we need to pay attention to the way God does it.

*”tool”: first, let us not be offended by the expression “tool”. It has to be taken and understood and an image, and only taking part of the similarity not all of it. Because a normal “tool” we use in our daily life is rather a “dead” one. While we can't say that about the “human nature” that the Son of God takes. It is alive. A body, a soul and the highest part of the soul: the spirit, are very alive, they have their functions, and their relative autonomy according to their very nature. They are called here “tool” only in a analogical way. They have their total and full dignity. So let us not take the negative aspect of the image.

It would have been much “easier” for God to save us with his Divine Nature alone, but this wouldn't be an “out of love” way to save us, it would have been “out of power”. Love makes the one who loves similar to the beloved. God loves us, and it is because He loves us that He wants to save us and bring us back to Him. God is moved by love, by His very Nature (the Divine Nature): Love.

So, since Love (the Holy Spirit) makes the One Who loves (Jesus) similar to the loved one (us), He wanted to get as close as possible to us (including all what constitutes us as “humans”, i.e. culture). He then wanted to be like us, as much as He could (except for sin). This means that all the pores of his Human Nature (body, soul and spirit) had to open, develop, and be similar to ours, and “discover” us. Of course in His Human Nature, He is purer than us. But “pure” means as well with greater sensitivity, greater intelligence, greater capacity to love.

"He [humanly] learned obedience" (He 5:8)

He wanted to be similar to us, starting with His Culture: He is born amongst the “chosen People of God”, in a specific moment in history, in a specific land, with a specific language, specific habits, traditions, concepts: in a word: He had a specific Culture.

He certainly, out of love, did observe us humans, and studied us, in order to love us more, and to help us better. Of course He had high knowledge, coming from his Divinity and from the Holy Spirit, reaching his soul. But still, in order to use his “human nature” according to the laws and functioning of his human nature, out of love, He had to “undergo” the speed (the slowness) and capacity of digestion of the human process of growth (it takes years, rightly)!

Sometimes we pay less attention to the 30 years of preparation of Jesus. At 12 he becomes adult according to the Jewish tradition. He goes to the Temple.

Jesus, at 12, in the Temple

Then, after that, he comes back to his home town and to his home town. And continues the human process of growth, from 12 to 30: this means 18 years of “work” of preparation. "Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them." (Luke 2:51)

Jesus and Joseph

This great “work” He goes through is very important in order to understand the whole process of Salvation/Redemption.

He saves us with His humanity (as pointed out in a previous post (Spiritual Journey 2), mentioning a Council that defined that issue, “Constantinople III, 680-681”), and His Human Nature (body, soul and spirit) is like a “hand” (or a "sponge") that is supposed to “grasp” us, hold us, embrace us, surround us, absorb us, be united with us.

His Body holds and embraces for inside our body,

his Soul our soul, and

his spirit our spirit.

(his "spirit" is the highest point of his soul; saint Thomas Aquinas calls it in latin: mens)

In order to “hold” us tightly, and be united with us, His human Nature (the “tool”) has to be ready: mature, adult, knowing his own culture, the words, the mentality, the habits, and tons of things that constitutes a “culture”.

With His Human Nature he had to undergo this journey in order to get closer to us. So these years (from 12 to 30) are very important for that purpose. 

During these years He is constantly getting (with his human nature) closer and closer to us, getting a better inside understanding of “who we are”, our weaknesses... He is our Saviour, and he took the human journey of growth to be as well “perfectly human” (as it is needed for that type of salvation: the salvation “out of love”).

In order to save, out of love, according to God's vision, He needs to be perfect God and perfect human. Coming out of the womb of our Lady doesn't make him (or any other being) a fully human being. In the animal world, us humans (we are more than animals but it is just a comparison), we are the specie that requires the greatest number of years to achieve maturity, and readiness for life. The process in long. We do not become humans by just coming out of the womb of our mother. We need years and years.

So, in order to become our Perfect Saviour, Jesus had to become Perfectly Human. In order to reach that “perfection”, he had to undergo, out of love, this journey of human, cultural growth.

He wanted for us Mercy, He wanted to understand us, from inside of his Human Nature, therefore, He went through this journey. This is why, I said that at that time (at the age of 30), when he started His Public Mission, he was ready, in his Human Nature.

Of course, at each age, He was perfect: He had the human perfection of each age. But He still had to go through all the ages. If He really wants to save us “out of Love” he had to be as close as possible to us, and similar to us as much as possible. So we can recognise in Him not only “the God that knows everything”, but “the Human Nature” that feels us, that carries us, that underwent through all that trouble to Save us.

The preparation of His Words

Plus, you have to add the fact that His words, all the words that He will use to save us, were like prepared, backed, in his Human Nature, during all these years. They came out of His Human Nature (brain, soul,..), full of Divine life, truthful to God, but as well truly truthful to us humans (having a human aspect to them).

Jesus had to “form” them in Him.

It is too easy to consider that everything landed in his humanity, in his human nature, from above, by the action of the Holy Spirit. But this understanding is heretical, in the sense that it doesn't respect a theological rule that says that each nature had to work and act according to its own rules and functions (see st. John Damascene, “De fide orthodoxa”, taken on board by st. Thomas Aquinas “Summa Teologica” IIIa Pars).

The words He uttered, these words that are described as “Spirit and Life” (see John 6), i.e. that contain “Holy Spirit” and “Divine Life” have been formed in His Human nature throughout the years: his sensibility, his choice, his brain, his culture, what he saw and received in his culture from his mom, his adoptive father, his family, his human experience, what he noticed and observed.

These words that He uttered and that saint John, in his Gospel, admires, are really a great achievement. They are like Him, in the same fully Divine and fully human. They took time to “bake” in Him, adhering to His human rhythm of growth, forming them, in Him, by the help of the Holy Spirit and his prayer. (Here I am speaking about the human side of Jesus).

His Perfection, at each stage of His human life, is not at all undermined by that growth. He is God at all the stages of His life. He has as well the human perfection of each stage of His life. But still, he “grew in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and men” (Luke 2:52).

I hope I replied t your question.

PS Speaking about Jesus, here is John Rutter's, “Dormi Jesu”, "The Virgin's Cradle Hymn", a short lullaby text.

“Dormi, Jesu! Mater ridet

Quae tam dulcem somnum videt,

Dormi, Jesu! blandule!

Si non dormis, Mater plorat,
Inter fila cantans orat,

Blande, veni, somnule.”

“Sleep, sweet babe! my cares beguiling:

Mother sits beside thee smiling;

Sleep, my darling, tenderly!

If thou sleep not, mother mourneth,
Singing as her wheel she turneth:

Come, soft slumber, balmily!”

26: The Spiritual Journey 2/11

2- The Journey of the "Son of God"

Let us take a closer look at the "Journey" of the Son of God. When we say "Son of God" we obviously mean the Second Person of the Trinity, the Son, who is God.

In order to follow the full movement of His descent we will be following the text of the letter of saint Paul to the Philippians.

"Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; "Christ Jesus: rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant,

• being made in human likeness.
• And being found in appearance as a man,
• he humbled himself
• by becoming obedient to death
• even death on a cross!" (Phil 2:5-8)

For the sake of showing the various steps in the descending movement of Incarnation, I will split that text in different moments as follows:

2- The journey of the Son of God

But, as you see, Jesus will grow, in His human nature, as saint Luke says: “And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men” (Luke 2:52). Not only that, but in His mission, He has various steps.

1- The moment of Incarnation: The Son takes flesh in Mary's womb.

2- At the age of 30, he starts his ministry: "Jesus, when he began his ministry, was about thirty years of age" (Luke 3:23).

3- After probably around 3 years, He heads toward Jerusalem: "After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem" (Luke 19:28).

4- He enters in His Passion, and becomes "like a slave" (Philippians 2).

5- On the Cross, for 6 hours, he dies, giving Himself to us.

During the moment of Death, there is an exchange: Jesus receives us in Him, and gives us his life. He takes our death, our sins, all our being, as he is, far from God, all in the darkness, and gives us His divine life, his Body, his Soul, his Spirit.

Development

As we can see, there is a development in Jesus life, in the Son of God's life on earth. These further steps show us that we can't just understand His life as being a linear plane, with just one great act at the End, the act of Redemption on the Cross.

Our perception of "time" and of its elapse is starting to change.

For instance, there is a big difference in Jesus' life between the years before His ministry and after. Similarly, there is a big difference between the months (/years) before He heads toward Jerusalem and after. This is the same as well for the moment He enters in His Passion.

Let us keep this in mind while deepening our understanding of the Incarnation, and Jesus' way, for his human nature.

Remember as well

We are saved by His human nature, by His own human will (see Third Council of Constantinople: 680-681 A.D.). His own human nature and his own human will had their own journey of growth and will constitute for us our own journey of growth, because He is mystically carrying each one of us in order to become our Way.

PS Please, just be patient, we are going, step by step, and it requires some more posts to have a better picture.

(to be continued...)