Christmas 2005: An amazing exchange
The incarnation of Christ changed for ever what it means to be human.
Because of it, our flesh has become the flesh of God. Not only, then, has God made
our flesh: he has become our flesh.
But this new meaning of being human is not exhausted in that fact,
astounding though it may be that the divinity lives in humanity. More astonishing still is that our humanity has become divine, not by right, but by gift, not by nature, but by adoption.
The incarnation of Christ makes possible between God and man, not
only an exchange of words or an exchange of feelings or even an exchange of good deeds, but an exchange of being. In Christ, God is man and man is God.
This union is the true
marriage, where the two become one, without losing their own nature, giving life to a countless multitude of sons and daughters
of God. All that is divine is given to all that is human; all that is human is given to all that is divine. Not until death
doth them part, but for ever.
Because of the incarnation, there is no dimension of human existence
that is not touched by the divine, like dew falling upon the earth. The incarnation makes possible the cooperation of grace
with nature.
It thus makes possible the sacraments, because the sacrament is the
external sign of an inner grace, that is, the human mediation of a divine reality, whose goal is to heal, elevate and glorify
human nature so that it can live with God.
In particular, the incarnation is what makes possible the Eucharist,
which is in reality, so not just metaphorically or symbolically, the personal and
substantial presence of the humanity and divinity of the Son of God under the appearances of bread and wine.
The incarnation is therefore what makes possible the Church which
is the unity in Christ through the sacraments of all who believe that Jesus has come in the flesh. The Church is thus both
human and divine.
In a word, by virtue of the incarnation all that God created as “very
good” becomes the place in which the uncreated goodness of God shines forth and reaches out as pure gift to all mankind.
By the same token, however, not only does the incarnation unlock and
unleash all divinely glorious gifts upon humanity, like that dew falling from above to below.
It must also mean that there is nothing truly human which cannot reach
upward, like rising incense, from below to above. If you take a look at the life of the incarnate Son of God, you can see
what I mean.
By the incarnation, the very beginnings of tiny human life are shown
to be caught up in the creative hands of God. Marriage itself reaches up to be at the transcendent service of God’s
will.
The personal plans of men and women, as of Joseph and Mary, be they
for vocation or for profession, must ultimately be focused on Christ.
By his incarnation, Jesus redirects all religion away from law and
ritual to the individual and collective adoration of his sacred humanity, be it by angel, king or pauper.
His body becomes the new and definitive temple, his words the new
and definitive law, his perfect human obedience to the Father, the new and definitive sacrifice and priesthood.
By his incarnation, all human labor becomes an expression and continuation
of the Creator’s ongoing work of creation. All family life becomes focused on him whose love must be preferred to any other human love, whose love must be the heart of
any other human love.
By his incarnation, all the longing and searching of humanity for
the ultimate social model or political system find their answer and fulfillment, not in theocracy, but in the humble service
of charity, freedom, truth, justice and peace.
The incarnation makes possible not only the reconciliation of man
with God, but the reconciliation of all things in heaven and earth in the God-Man.
By his incarnation, human suffering and sin in all their forms are
absorbed into his divine merciful love: they are purged in his Cross, transformed in his Resurrection and their redeemed energy
is redirected to the service of Messianic peace by the Spirit of Pentecost.
By the incarnation, our sagging self-esteem is lifted to the humble
confidence of Mary; our hurtful memories are healed by being surrendered to the memory of his unlimited love for us; the stranglehold
of our grudges and vendettas can be released into the power of his unfailing forgiveness and liberation; our suffocating anxieties
and doubts can find calm and reassurance in the tender certainty of his promises; our broken relationships can be mended in
the vulnerability of his open embrace and in his readiness to emphasize the positive and let go the negative.
The incarnation of Jesus brings all that is beautiful in our humanity
to its highest splendor and removes all that is ugly by restoring its potential beauty.
By the incarnation a new humanity is born.
At this point, in the name of the incarnate Jesus, I wish to speak
to the soul that feels lost, dark or weary. He is your Savior, he alone and none other.
He became a child for you, that you might hold him and cuddle him and feel the warmth of his divine humanity in your arms.
God is a child so that your guilt can recover innocence; he smiles
and cries helplessly in your embrace so that your darkness may give way to the light in his eyes, your complexity to his disarming
simplicity, your pretences and fake sophistications to his utter ordinariness.
God is flesh in this child so that you might again find healing, purity
and strength for your flesh.
Why, then, are you so weary when he is your rest?
Why do you exhaust yourself seeking what is false and empty, when
he is your truth and fulfillment?
Why do you sell your heart so easily to the dazzling glamour of a
world which, in the end, will only devour your soul, when the one in your arms holds the key to your everlasting peace?
“All who heard it were amazed by what had been told them by
the shepherds.”
Today, let all of us, like little children, discover again that same
amazement before the child of Mary. We may think we are nothing in the vast array of the universe, but if the Creator of the
stars of night, tarries in a manger, in the body of a child, then how can we not be amazed that in his eyes we are everything.
Being human is not simply the impersonal end-product of the cosmic
forces with which God’s hands have fashioned us. In creating man, the Lord created the form which he himself was to assume so that he might, in the fullness of time, be the first-born of many brethren.
Christmas is the fulfillment of that plan and it reveals to us the
dignity and divine destiny of our own humanity. Man was never meant only to be man, but to become divine through the humanity
of God.
Truly to grasp this is to grasp the true meaning of life and of creation
itself. To translate it into daily existence is to know the true meaning of love, of holiness and of redemption.
Without Christ, man is dust. With Christ, man is God.
Christmas, then, is no mere “happy holiday”, but the celebration
of the divine destiny of every human being that will ever exist.
I conclude with words inspired by St. Augustine:
“O children of men, awake and rouse yourselves!
Don’t you realize that God has been made flesh for you?
Don’t you realize that you are called to be like God?”
Yes, make us realize, O child of Mary, make us always aware and everywhere:
- amazed at what you have done for us!
- amazed at what we mean to you!
- amazed at what we will be with you!
Msgr. Peter Magee
Sunday December 25th, 2005
Annunciation, DC: 8.30 am
