The Incarnation (The Creed)

For us men and for our salvation

he came down from heaven,

and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary,

and became man.

The Incarnation is the second most beautiful moment in history, only surpassed by the Passion. How wondrous a moment! In the words of one of my favorite songs, "heaven meets earth like a passionate kiss." The seen and the unseen collided when God "became man." This is the truth: Jesus Christ, while fully God, became fully man. "The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." (John 1:14)

It is all too easy to overlook this Mystery and simply accept it. This is a revolutionary Truth! God condescended to our human nature. The God who made the Universe, who is the source of all light and grace, assumed the weakness of human flesh. For Jesus was indeed "tempted in all things like we are, without sin." (Hebrews 4:15)

The reality is not just counter-intuitive, it is scandalous. Who would believe that God would become man? The Greeks let their false gods masquerade as men, but they never accepted the weakness of humanity. Even in the Old Testament, God appeared to His chosen people, but always in a supernatural way. He was manifest in a burning bush, a pillar of cloud and flame. He sent messengers to Abraham, Jacob, Joshua, and Tobit. But He never appeared to the Jews in the incarnate form of man.

Then everything changed. The Angel Gabriel appeared to a lowly maiden in Nazareth who was betrothed to a man named Joseph. He said to her "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women." (Luke  1:28) Angels are superior in nature to mortal men. But Gabriel did not begin by trumpeting his own greatness or even the greatness of the One who sent him. Gabriel greeted Mary as one who is humbled in the presence of grace.

And this was rightly so. For Mary is indeed blessed among women. The only human being besides Christ to be born without the blemish of original sin was Mary. She was perfected to bear the Perfect One. "New wine must be put into new bottles." (Luke 5:38) That is why Mary deserves so much laud and honor, deserves to have angels hail her, because of her Divine Son.

Jesus came into the world. The King of Creation came down to earth and assumed flesh, not in the manner of one changing clothes or putting on a disguise, but fundamentally so. The Lord took on our weakness to temptation, our capacity for pain, confusion, anger, and sadness.

And Jesus did not enter the world as we would think a king ought to have. He was not born in a palace. He did not have servants fulfilling his every need or soldiers watching over him. We would expect God to come down to earth as He did in the Old Testament, with fire and thunder. We would expect Him to be borne down on a chariot of flame, flanked by a celestial retinue. He "should" have been born in the company of "great" men: Alexander or Aristotle, Shakespeare or Socrates or Confucius. He "should" have been born into an "advanced" age like our own, where He could have used radio and television and the Internet to spread His message across the seas, around the globe.

But that didn't happen. Christ entered the world in a way that was just as humble as the nature that he condescended to take. Instead of a palace, a manger. Instead of servants, cows. Instead of royalty and philosophers, dirty shepherds. Instead of protecting Him, soldiers tried to kill Him.

Jesus was born in an age before even the printing press. He was born in a remote corner of the world, Bethlehem in the modern day West Bank, far from the gilded halls of Rome.

God does not make mistakes. Jesus was not born in so lowly a time and so lowly a place on accident, just as His Passion was not a fluke. Jesus came into the world "for us men and for our salvation." Intentionally.

What is more beautiful? What is more humbling? For love of us, the God who created the universe became fully man. The Son became the child of a virgin. He spent thirty three years during which he felt pain, loss, anger, and joy. God-made-man was scourged and killed. He was brought to wrath by the defilers of His temple. His heart was consoled by the sight of the children who came to him. One of the most poignant lines in the Gospels comes when Lazarus died. Our Lord came to the tomb, "and Jesus wept." (John 35:11)

True God and True man. Jesus loves us so much that he endured the ignominy of an anonymous life. He was born in the most humble of circumstances. His surrogate father, St. Joseph, nearly divorced His Most Blessed Mother because she conceived by the Holy Spirit without knowing man.

Christ came to Earth to save us from sin. He is the only man born to die. (Fulton Sheen) The Word-made-flesh lived among men and in so doing, gives us "a concrete vision of triune life." (Hans Urs von Balthasar, Prayer)

This is our belief. Our God is not a cruel God. He does not hide His face from the ranks of men, He gave His face human likeness. Blessed be the Incarnate Son of God, True God and True Man!

Deus Vult!