{"id":1689,"date":"2020-12-01T17:36:27","date_gmt":"2020-12-01T17:36:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ourcharism.org\/?p=1689"},"modified":"2021-08-26T17:38:15","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T16:38:15","slug":"faith-in-the-incarnation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ourcharism.org\/index.php\/2020\/12\/01\/faith-in-the-incarnation\/","title":{"rendered":"Faith in the Incarnation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Have Faith in the Incarnation! <\/em><\/strong>[1]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Saint John Paul II<\/em><\/p>\n

It has only been a few days since Advent began, a time in which we especially dedicate ourselves \u2013as our Directory of Spirituality <\/em>teaches us\u2013 to \u201cprayer, to the practice of charity and piety, to denying oneself, to a better fulfillment of one\u2019s duties, etc.\u201d[2]<\/sup><\/a>, in preparation for the commemoration of the event that began the Christian era: the birth of Jesus.<\/p>\n

It could be very enlightening during this time to note that in the first reading we will read during the Christmas Eve Mass (or at Midnight) we will hear the Prophet Isaiah telling us of a people who walked in darkness\u2026 <\/em>[who bore] the yoke of their burden, <\/em>and a bar across their shoulders.<\/em>[3]<\/sup><\/a> And he will also tell us that it was this people, with all their darkness and pain, that on that first Christmas, saw a great light<\/em> and that their joy was great.<\/em>[4]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Into this world with its depression, its despair, and its despondency, God came. And He came to set men and their world right with God, not only their hearts and their souls,[5]<\/sup><\/a> but even their business, their secular affairs, their governments, all that is human. This reminds us of the line in our proper law that we have read and heard so many times, and that takes on great relevance in this context: \u201cwhat is not assumed is not redeemed.\u201d[6]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

This is why our beloved Saint John Paul II quoting the Prologue of the Gospel of Saint John, that we will read this Christmas: \u201cThe Word was made flesh, and made his dwelling among us\u201d<\/em> [7]<\/sup><\/a>, <\/em>said that by the words was made flesh,<\/em> the evangelist is alluding to the human nature, not only its mortal condition, but also in its totality. Everything that is human, except sin, was assumed by the Son of God. The Incarnation is the fruit of an immense love that moved God to want to share fully in our human condition.\u201d[8]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

So much so that we can say that God solved all the social, political, family and economic problems of the world not by enunciating a new economic system; not by showing us a mountain of papers with the results of his research, revealing new aspects of the problem; nor did he do so by means of wars. He saved the world from its ills by being born as a babe in the insignificant village of Bethlehem, assuming all that is human.<\/p>\n

If we look closely, this seemingly trivial incident which was so commonplace that the inn-keepers dismissed the Holy Family, telling them simply that there was no room for them in the inn,<\/em> was the revolution that upset the world and the solution which gave it peace. How often we have read that the Virgin Mother sought refuge in a stable and laid the newborn babe on the floor of the world. Well then, this Babe, by taking the immense leap from the heavenly life to the abyss of human existence, like another Samson shook the pillars of the world to its very foundations, pulled down the already crumbling edifice, and built the Temple of the living God in its place, where men might once more sing because they had found their God. This is the Good News we are called to proclaim unto the ends of the earth.<\/p>\n

1. In Christ, human time was filled with eternity<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>But one could ask: what has the birth of a God in the form of a babe to do with the social, political, and economic conditions of His day and our own? What possible relation could exist between a child in a manger of straw and Caesar on his throne of gold? The answer is: the birth of the Son of God in the flesh was the introduction into the historical world-order of a new life; it was a proclamation to the world that social reconstruction has something to do with spiritual regeneration; that nations can be saved only by the men in them being re-born to God as God on this night was born to man. As for us, members of the Institute of the Incarnate Word, this cannot leave us indifferent, being called as we are to \u201cput out intrepidly to restore all things in Christ.\u201d<\/em>[9]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

By becoming man God entered the created order, and became part of the stream of history in an entirely new way, he made himself close to us and gives us a strength that comes from above. Regarding this our proper law has a phrase from Saint John Paul II that says: \u201cGod had never been so close to man \u2013and never had man been so close to God\u2013 as in that very moment: in the instant of the Incarnation mystery!\u201d[10]<\/sup><\/a>. We perceive that \u201cIn becoming man, the Word of God brought about a fundamental change in the very condition of time. We can say that in Christ human time was filled with eternity. This transformation touches the destiny of all humanity, since \u2018by his Incarnation, he, the Son of God, has in a certain way united himself with each man\u2019[11]<\/sup><\/a>. He came to offer everyone participation in his divine life. The gift of this life includes sharing in his eternity.\u201d[12]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

In other words, \u201c[Christ]\u2026 became the Son of man in order that we might have the power to be the sons of God.\u201d[13]<\/sup><\/a> This is the true meaning of Christmas. Jesus became man to give us a part in his divine life and later in his eternal glory. That is why Christ was born a babe to teach us that deliverance from all the economic, social and political chaos can be obtained only by a birth: the birth of Christ in souls.<\/p>\n

Since it is proper to us to \u201crestore all things entirely in Christ\u201d[14]<\/sup><\/a>, it seems necessary to emphasize once again that the \u201cGospel must also permeate, purify and transform the economic, social and political orders.\u201d[15]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

At the time of the Christ\u2019s birth, humanity was tired, mentally and spiritually exhausted; for four thousand years it had been making the great experiment of Humanism, and was now like a sick man who could not cure himself. It was in a state like unto our own world, which since the days of the Renaissance, has tried to build its civilization on the self-sufficiency of man without God.<\/p>\n

How slow we men are to recognize that mankind left to itself sinks downward and reverts to little more than a beast. We have proof enough that people advanced in culture may degenerate into a culture of savages\u2026 (just watch the news one evening.)<\/p>\n

Apart from supernatural assistance society goes from bad to worse until deterioration is universal. Not evolution but devolution is the law of man without God, just as it is the law of the sunflower without the sun.<\/p>\n

Humanity left to itself cannot even tie its own shoelaces. With all our knowledge of chemistry and genetics\u2026 we cannot make a human life in our laboratories because we lack the unifying, vivifying principle of a soul which comes only from God. Life is not a push from below; it is a gift from above. It is not the result of the necessary ascent of man, but the descent of God. It is not \u201cprogress,\u201d it is the fruit of the Incarnation.<\/p>\n

Hence; like that world unto which Christ was born, the world today needs not a shuffling of old ideas, not a new economic system, not a new monetary system: it needs a New Birth. It needs the intrusion into our order of a new life and a new spirit, which God alone can give. We cannot give ourselves this new Birth any more than we can be born again naturally. If we are to be born again into the newness of life the regenerating principle must come from above, and that is precisely the meaning of the Incarnation: the introduction into the world on the level of human nature of the Life of God, who came not to judge the world, but to save it. And this is why we say that the Incarnate Word solved our problems by being born as a Babe, because the regeneration of society has something to do with Birth, being born to the life of grace and growing accordingly. In this sense, the Incarnation is not something of the past. How can God belong to the past? The Incarnation is taking place right now.[16]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

What God did to his individual human nature \u2013which he took from Mary His Mother\u2013 is what He wills to do, to a lesser degree, to every human nature in the world; namely, to make us partakers of His Divine Life. The Incarnate Word, who from all eternity willed to be born in Bethlehem that cold Christmas night, wills that we and all men and women who walk this earth be reborn in Eternity of the Heavenly Father, made new creatures, become possessed of the new life of his grace and members of the Kingdom of God.<\/p>\n

The very divine life that came into the world about two thousand years ago must once again permeate the process of the world. Unless it is reborn to this new life, the world will perish. Therefore, we once again affirm that, today like yesterday, \u201cthe true knowledge of the adorable mystery of the Incarnation of the Word is also the key to understanding and building up the whole human temporal order, its culture and its civilization. Confessing Jesus\u2019 authentic and integral human condition, assumed by the Eternal Word of God, permits us to \u2018recuperate the divine dimension in all earthly reality.\u2019[17]<\/sup><\/a>\u201d[18]<\/sup><\/a> This is the truth that should propel us in our mission.<\/p>\n

We must never forget that \u201cwe profess our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ,<\/em>[19]<\/sup><\/a> and that a reference to all creatures is contained in Him. [\u2026]. [This signifies that] He is the point of meeting and union of God and man, of eschatology and the Incarnation, and of sidereal distances and the millimeter. For that reason, nothing escapes Christ, neither space travel nor the world of electronics and computers, neither the most current science nor the most sophisticated technology, nor recent discoveries, the family, work, culture, politics, economics, etc.\u201d[20]<\/sup><\/a> Evangelizing in the \u201cmodern Areapagi\u201d[21]<\/sup><\/a> is not simply a metaphor, our task is to make it a reality.<\/p>\n

Writing these paragraphs, it seems inevitable that we recall the fiery appeal that Saint John Paul II made to us during the homily for the inaugural Mass of his pontificate: \u201cOpen, open wide the doors to Christ! To his saving power open the boundaries of States, economic and political systems, the vast fields of culture, civilization and development. Do not be afraid!\u201d[22]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Likewise, how opportune and relevant it is to remember the paternal exhortation he made in 1984 to some religious, that seems to be especially directed to us here and now: \u201cHave faith in the Incarnation! <\/em>The nearness of the Christmas feasts moves me to underline this fundamental program for your religious life [\u2026] To have faith in the Incarnation means first of all to believe firmly in Divine Providence. <\/em>God has concretely manifested his love for humanity by entering it as Man and as Savior. Saint John writes: in this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.<\/em>[23]<\/sup><\/a> Many events in current history shock and disturb us: the \u2018Christian anthropology\u2019 based on the concept of the \u2018human person\u2019, created by God, redeemed by Christ, enlightened by the church, eternally responsible for his own actions, is in contrast with the immanentistic and historicistic anthropology with no relation to revelation. [\u2026] And yet the commemoration of Christmas returns and continues to underline that the Word was made flesh<\/em> in order to enlighten humanity regarding his true destiny and about the presence of divine love in the vicissitudes of history. Humility is necessary in order to accept and live this truth.<\/p>\n

To have faith in the Incarnation also means to love man<\/em> whoever he might be, as one of God\u2019s creatures.<\/em> The very fact that God wanted to become man clearly shows how much he loves him, esteems him and values him. [\u2026] Finally, to have faith in the Incarnation also means helping souls in order to save them. <\/em>This is why Jesus was born in the stable in Bethlehem and died on the cross.\u201d[24]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

We are unavoidably called to submit to Our Lord all that is human, and \u201cto leave no stone unturned so that the love of Christ may have the highest supremacy in the Church and society.\u201d[25]<\/sup><\/a> Since He alone puts men in communication with God, \u201cit is necessary that the whole of human culture be steeped in the Gospel.[26]<\/sup><\/a> Here we have the very important and fundamental role that our own small Religious Family is called to play.<\/p>\n

\u201cChristmas is the divine light that gives value and meaning to people\u2019s lives and to the history of humanity,\u201d said the Spiritual Father of the Institute. And so, to consume our lives in multiplying Christmases should be the aim of our priesthood. Since it is for God to be born anew in the heart of so many men and women who still don\u2019t know Christ, or perhaps knowing him are not coherent with this knowledge, that we have been given the sacrament of holy orders. The evangelization, the preaching of the Good News, corresponds to each of us personally, despite our littleness, the lack of means, and the adverse circumstances.<\/p>\n

The slogan for this Christmas continues to be contemplating our lives with the eyes of God full of confidence and love. Jesus was born in the poverty of Bethlehem to embrace all of our humanity. Jesus turns to us as well this year, to renew the arcane prodigy of salvation offered to all men and to all of man. His grace works silently in the intimacy of each soul, because salvation is essentially a dialogue of faith and love with Christ, adored in the mystery of the Incarnation. Let us accept this mystery as the real Christmas present and let us be, in our turn, magnanimous distributors of this Gift so that by means of our surrender, today as always, the ideals \u2013 the only ones that console \u2013 triumph: those of a life spent in faith, in charity, in goodness, and in sanctity.<\/p>\n

And this brings us to the next point:<\/p>\n

2. Bringing the mystery of Christmas to people <\/strong><\/h4>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Saint John of the Cross wrote that \u201cthe incarnation of the Word, and the mysteries of the faith [\u2026] being the greatest works of God, and involving a greater love than those of creation, produce a greater effect of love in the soul.\u201d[27]<\/sup><\/a> And for his part, Saint John Paul II, doubtless imbued with the teaching of St. John of the Cross, did not hesitate to affirm that \u201cThe glory of God is revealed in the Incarnation more than in any other work.\u201d[28]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Therefore, to bring to all peoples the light of the truth of God made Man who has been given to us as \u201cbrother, companion, and master, as ransom and prize,\u201d[29]<\/sup><\/a> is not only an excellent way of giving glory to God, but is the very goal of evangelization, and certainly one of the most effective pastoral actions, or better said, \u201cthe pastoral action\u201d. The Holy Father explains: \u201cPeople cannot live without love. They are called to love God and their neighbour, but in order to love properly they must be certain that God loves them.\u201d[30]<\/sup><\/a> For this there is nothing better than the mystery of the newborn Son of God who asks for our love \u201cthrough which we spontaneously learn to enter into his feelings, his thoughts and his will \u2013 we learn to live with him and to practise with him that humility of renunciation that belongs to the very essence of love.\u201d[31]<\/sup><\/a> This is the \u201cmain effect of love\u201d that we want to achieve.<\/p>\n

What could be more eloquent for souls \u201cthan the tenderness of God: God who looks upon us with eyes full of love, who accepts our poverty, God who is in love with our smallness.\u201d[32]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

3. An entirely unique example<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Before indicating the different activities which our proper law proposes during the Christmas season, I wanted to mention how Saint John Paul II lived Christmas<\/strong>, as an entirely unique example for us; for he lived it as a time of particular spiritual intensity. We consider that in our lives, communities, and missions we can easily follow his example, so human yet so supernatural, given its simplicity. We see:<\/p>\n

His devotion for the mystery of the Nativity dates back to his childhood. He describes it very briefly yet beautifully in a letter to children: \u201cDear children, as I write to you I am thinking of when many years ago I was a child like you. I too used to experience the peaceful feelings of Christmas, and when the star of Bethlehem shone, I would hurry to the Crib together with the other boys and girls to relive what happened 2000 years ago in Palestine. We children expressed our joy mostly in song. How beautiful and moving are the Christmas carols which in the tradition of every people are sung around the Crib! What deep thoughts they contain, and above all what joy and tenderness they express about the Divine Child who came into the world that Holy Night! The days which follow the birth of Jesus are also feast days: so eight days afterwards, according to the Old Testament tradition, the Child was given a name: he was called Jesus.\u201d[33]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Those who lived Christmases with the Holy Father testify[34]<\/sup><\/a> as to how much he loved that time of year and how much he looked forward to Christmas. They tell that he always wanted to celebrate it in a family environment, in accord with the Polish tradition: therefore, he normally invited all those with whom he shared daily life, the religious who worked in his house and his secretaries. He also invited some old friends of his from Krakow and their families. On Christmas Eve, John Paul II began by lighting a candle and placing it in a window. They recount that he began this tradition in 1981, when General Jaruzelski declared martial law in Poland; and the Holy Father wanted to symbolize his closeness to his persecuted fellow citizens with this candle. After having done this, he read a passage from the Gospel and only after this would he begin the meal in which, of course, traditional Polish dishes were served.<\/p>\n

After the supper they sang Christmas carols. Those who lived with him testify that he really liked to sing and he did so during Christmastime every night from December 24th<\/sup> to January 6th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

John Paul II also really liked the Christmas tree. He began the tradition of placing a monumental nativity scene with the enormous Christmas tree in Saint Peter\u2019s Square. As if that wasn\u2019t enough, he also decorated his department with the small trees from the Polish mountains of Zakopane which were sent to him and there was always a manger scene to be found during Christmastide, because \u201cthere is no Christmas without a manger\u201d as he was known to say. Furthermore, \u201cat Christmastime, the stable and the manger take center place in the Church,\u201d[35]<\/sup><\/a>, as written by the Holy Father.<\/p>\n

Now, under the little Christmas tree there were no presents \u2013in accordance with the Polish tradition\u2013 where the gifts are bestowed on December 6th<\/sup>, feast of Saint Nicholas. On this day, \u201cSaint Nicholas came to the dining room being announced by bells. It was one of the sisters dressed up as the \u2018Saint of the gifts\u2019. I don\u2019t know if I should be telling you this,\u201d said one of his secretaries \u2013the current Archbishop Mieczyslaw Mokrzycki\u2013 he continued: \u201cTo tell the truth, in my first year in the Papal house I was surprised because it seemed to be to a child\u2019s feast and all of us were grownups. But it really moved me to see how much the Pope loved us and because I understood that in these moments he was remembering his childhood in Wadowice.\u201d[36]<\/sup><\/a> \u201cAt that time, \u2018Saint Nicholas\u2019 had something to say to every person present before the gift giving. Small things: pastries, fruit, a scarf, a shirt, gloves. We joked and laughed. It was always like this, each year, until the last, until December of 2004.\u201d[37]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

This short anecdote gives us insight into the Holy Father\u2019s simplicity of heart, as well as the care and importance he gave to each detail of a family Christmas, as though wanting others to perceive \u2013in a tangible way\u2013 God\u2019s personal love for each one of us.<\/p>\n

Certainly moved by the same intention, he, as bishop, celebrated Christmas outdoors in Nowa Huta in 1959. This event is not just a minor detail, due to the fact that this town located on the outskirts of Krakow was called the \u2018model of the working city,\u2019 and was the first city in the history of Poland constructed deliberately without a church.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, throughout the length of his entire pontificate, but especially during Christmas, Saint John Paul II put forth great effort so that everyone could arrive to \u201cthe unheard of tenderness of God \u2026offered to all mankind \u2026 clearly \u2026 shown by the Child in the crib!\u201d[38]<\/sup><\/a>. He wanted to spread the Christmas spirit to all. Thus, for example, during his visit to New York in October of 1995, in front of thousands of people in Central Park, the Pope who loved Christmas since his childhood, took off from his prepared text and started speaking about one of his favorite Polish Christmas carols\u2014which then he began, spontaneously, to sing. The huge congregation roared its approval, to which the Pope remarked \u201cAnd to think\u2014you don\u2019t even know Polish,\u201d [39]<\/sup><\/a> The crowd applauded even more boisterously. He then said: \u201cThat is a hymn which moves us deeply by reminding us that Jesus, the Son of God, was born of Mary, born to make us holy and to make us adopted sons and daughters of God. It is a hymn to the creative power of the Holy Spirit. It is a song to help us not to be afraid. <\/em>If I speak of Christmas, it is because in less than five years we shall reach the end of the Second Millennium, two thousand years since the birth of Christ on that first Christmas night in Bethlehem. We must allow the Holy Spirit to prepare us for this important event,<\/em> which is another significant stage of his passage through history and of our pilgrimage of faith.\u201d[40]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

4. Our way of celebrating Christmas<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Similarly, and under the guidance of the Polish Pope, every one of the Institute\u2019s members, imbued by faith in the mystery of the Incarnation and with apostolic enthusiasm[41]<\/sup><\/a> and priestly surrender[42]<\/sup><\/a> should not only personally live the Christmas season in all of its spiritual profundity and with festive joy,[43]<\/sup><\/a> but also should try to transmit, spread, and form others in the true Christmas spirit. This can be done through the most humble expressions of popular sentiment: setting up a good manger scene, decorating a beautiful Christmas tree, promoting participation in the measure possible in a \u2018living Nativity scene\u2019, organizing pilgrimages to different church\u2019s manger scenes or those in the faithful\u2019s houses, singing Christmas carols, or Christmas concerts, etc. All these displays of popular piety allow the people to grasp intuitively[44]<\/sup><\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u2013 the importance of the \u2018spirituality of gift\u2019, which is proper to Christmas: a child is born for us, a son is given to us<\/em>,[45]<\/sup><\/a> a gift expressing the infinite love of God, who so loved the world that he gave his only Son<\/em>;[46]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

\u2013 the message of solidarity conveyed by the event of Christmas: solidarity with sinful man, for whom, in Christ, God became man for us men and for our salvation<\/em>; solidarity with the poor, because the Son of God was rich but became poor for your sake, to make you rich out of your poverty<\/em>;[47]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

\u2013 the sacredness of human life and the wonderful event that is every birth, since the Word of life came amongst men and was made visible through his birth of the Virgin Mary;[48]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

\u2013 the messianic joy and peace to which man has aspired in every age: the Angels announce the birth of the Savior of the world to the shepherds, the Prince of Peace<\/em>[49]<\/sup><\/a> and proclaim peace on earth to men of good will<\/em>;[50]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

\u2013 the spirit of simplicity and poverty, humility and trust in God, suggested by the events surrounding the birth of Christ.<\/p>\n

In a simple way, these practices of popular piety contribute to preserve the memory of the Lord\u2019s manifestation, so as to ensure that the strong religious tradition surrounding Christmas is not secularized by consumerism or the infiltration of various forms of Neopaganism.[51]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

For its part, our proper law, although briefly, enumerates various activities that it not only hopes will be done in our houses of formation or parishes, but also desires that we strengthen and enrich them as much as possible \u2013 always in so far as pastoral prudence permits. These are to be carried out in a way that leaves room for other activities to arise from apostolic creativity, which will elicit the desired holy \u201cfamiliarity with the Word made flesh.\u201d[52]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n