This Advent, on each Sunday, we will take a look at Saint Augustine’s thoughts on the Incarnation contained in his Sermon 191. The sermon begins with a wonderful series of contradictions:
(1) The Word of the Father, by whom all time was created, was made flesh and was born In time for us. He, without whose divine permission no day completes its course, wished to have one day [set aside] for His human birth. In the bosom of His Father, He existed before all the cycles of ages; born of an earthly Mother, He entered upon the course of the years on this day. The Maker of man became Man that He, Ruler of the stars, might be nourished at the breast; that He, the Bread, might be hungry; that He, the Fountain, might thirst; that He, the Light, might sleep; that He, the Way, might be wearied by the journey; that He, the Truth, might be accused by false witnesses; that He, the Judge of the living and the dead, might be brought to trial by a mortal judge; that He, Justice, might be condemned by the unjust; that He, Discipline, might be scourged with whips; that He, the Grape, might be crowned with thorns; that He, the Foundation, might be suspended upon a cross; that Courage might be weakened; that Security might be wounded; that Life might die. To endure these and similar indignities for us, to free us, unworthy creatures, He who ‘existed as the Son of God before all ages, without a beginning, deigned to become the Son of Man in these recent years. He did this although He who submitted to such great evils for our sake had done no evil and although we, who were the recipients of so much good at His hands, had done nothing to merit these benefits. Begotten by the Father, He was not made by the Father; He was made Man in the Mother whom He Himself had made, so that He might exist here for a while, sprung from her who could never and nowhere have existed except through His power.
In our God becoming one of us we see the depth of His love and His willingness to share our mortality and thus to raise us to live in immortality with Him. Behind all the contradictions of the Incarnation is the love of God, the source of all Creation and the reason for Creation.
Happy New Year.
Thank you for this series from St. Augustine.
That our life on earth might resemble, in less than brilliant light, a fraction of the Son of Man. That by this life the Father of Heaven might recognize that quality as a portion of His Son’s, and be pleased at the offering by such a lowly brother.
That we might be found in Him.