Villa la Paz Newsletter December 2010
Incarnation: 1a) endowment with a human body; appearance in human form b) Christian Theol. effectuation of the hypostatic union though the conception of the second person of the Trinity in the womb of the Virgin Mary.
Webster’s New World Directory
Third College Edition
It was a most powerful demonstration of humility when God Almighty entered incarnate into the affairs of men, living among us, as one of us. He did this in the person of Jesus Christ and not with the great fanfare exhibited by the world. He was born quietly in a stable. The world and its rulers did not notice. His childhood and adolescence were passed in obscurity. Little is known of his hidden years.
Eunice M. Lasche
The Wheat of God
(Magnificat Institute Press)
The primary motive of God’s Incarnation is God’s goodness, not human sinfulness. The Incarnation is a dynamic expression of God’s overflowing love and mercy as well as a revelation of God’s poverty and humility. Through the Incarnation we find redemption and completion, making it the heart of all reality.
Gerard Thomas Straub
Posted in Reflections
The Incarnation was a defining moment in history in which the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, the Word of God, took on all of the physical and emotional attributes of man, like us in all things but sin. It was an event so glorious, so incomprehensible, that its full implications cannot be grasped. The infinite became finite, the all-powerful became helpless and dependent. The Eternal First Principle was born in a cave attended to by an adolescent girl and a sleepy carpenter. His first earthly court consisted of poor shepherds and lowing animals, His throne a feeding trough for cattle. The circumstances of His birth, truly meditated, are discomforting because they point to poverty and humility as God’s preferred options for entering our world. They point to hidenness and obscurity, to a complete lack of self- centeredness and desire for recognition. They point to a total self-emptying. These are the implication and ideals of the Incarnation and none of them, by the standards of our society, are desirable. We covet wealth, recognition, the applause of others and standing out in society. Given these tendencies how then do we approach the ideals of the Incarnation? How do we continue Christ’s redemptive work by embracing those ideals which He manifested in His acceptance of our human condition? We do so by embracing a poverty of spirit by which we admit our total dependence on God. All that we have, our attributes, talents, gifts have been given freely to be used in stewardship for the benefit of others. To admit to our poverty of spirit, to the fact that nothing of ours is due to our own efforts, enables us to see and regard the needs of others in our family, community and world. Poverty of spirit is a gift that enables us to embrace others in love, to see that we are all equal in the eyes of our heavenly Father, to appreciate the dignity of every human being no matter their social class, degree of education, religious beliefs or race.
No one can celebrate a genuine Christmas without being truly poor. The self-sufficient, the proud, those who, because they have everything, look down on others, those who have no need even for God for them there will be no Christmas. Only the poor, the hungry, those who need someone to come on their behalf, will have that someone. That someone is God, Emmanuel, God-with-us. Without poverty of spirit there can be no abundance of God.
Oscar Romero
Martyred Arhbishop of El Salvador
The most radical and elevating affirmation of the value of every human being was made by the Son of God in His becoming man in the womb of a woman.
Pope John Paul II
Our children, as the poor everywhere, will celebrate a genuine Christmas. They, as the Incarnate God, were born in obscurity and are totally dependent on others for their needs. Being empty of worldly things they can be filled with His goodness, peace and love. Thank you for making their care possible. We wish you a most glorious celebration of God’s Incarnation. We love you and wish you His peace.