Thoughts about the Incarnation

Why Jesus cannot be sidestepped?

 

   

1. About the mistakes of our relationship with God: in how many ways do we want to avoid Jesus, the stumbling stone? The human mind is able to invent an incredible number of ideas not to confront either with the omnipotence of God or with (especially!) the eyes of Jesus offering Himself and asking for His acceptance. God is our Heavenly Father, so why shouldn’t He look like a benignant, wise grandfather? Let Him be a king! Let enthrone Him! However, God is not a distant, well-defined object of worship but He is Everything that fulfills us. Consider then God as Silence, Simplicity, Perfection, Consistency, Immobility, and Eternity! We are not fine with these either. In the same way how God cannot be personated, He can not be depersonalized either: because the essence of God is love. If we cast away God among to concepts, we make it impossible to have a direct love-relationship with Him and with this we lose the essence of God. (For further details, please read my essay here.)

 

2. How purity and the touch of God are related to each other? The miracle of Incarnation. Jesus has come down to Earth from the Trinity emptying himself slavishly (Philippians 2:6-8) because the Trinity wanted to involve us, human beings in the beauty and Totality of the love-relationship in which They live. Let’s think about what Totality of Purity was needed for that God’s only begotten Son could be conceived in Holy Mary! Let’s think about also what humility and obedience are reflected in the accepting words of Holy Mary! Let’s feel how the Holy Spirit expands exaltedly again, in a way mankind have never seen it after the Creation, and due to the Father’s Grace, Christ’s agreeing sacrifice and Mary’s pure humility the Earth and the Sky became connected. (For further details, please read my essay here.)

 

3. What does the infant Jesus give us? Let me ask the Reader to read the last part of the 2018 Christmas blog post. Pray until you reach that wonderfully pure and peaceful state what Jesus’ birth was. Feel how Jesus grows in You! Feel how Jesus accepts You into Himself. Feel the Totality of Joy – in Jesus, "out there at the other side of the Door"! Then return to this world. Feel the freedom how You go in and come out through Jesus as the Door (John 10:9b). Also feel that each and every "going in" and "coming out" makes you purer. Feel that as You become more and more pure in your relationship with Jesus, you can get closer and closer to God. Feel the wonderful expansion of approaching God. What does the infant Jesus give us? How does the birth of Jesus answer the question asked in the first part of my essay? (For answers to these questions, please read my essay here.)

 


 

Introduction. As I wrote in my first essay in September, I will go along a whole course of a spiritual retreat with my essays until summer. With the Christmas post we have arrived at the end of the first week of the four weeks’ long spiritual retreat: Christ may have been born within us, we may have been given places in the House of God and we may have realized that we were the Children of God. My four essays covering the second week of the spiritual retreat confronted us with our sins. Both our community sins and our own personal sins have been examined, we have thought about the conditions of our good choices, and we have answered the question what is the most important decision of our whole lives. Until the coming summer we will go along the second two weeks of the four weeks’ long spiritual retreat: praying throughout the whole earth life of Christ, our Lord.

-----------------we reached this point in our prayer--------------------------------------------------------

 

1. About the mistakes of our relationship with God: in how many ways do we want to avoid Jesus, the stumbling stone?

 

   

The human mind is able to invent an incredible number of ideas not to confront either with the omnipotence of God or with (especially!) the eyes of Jesus offering Himself and asking for His acceptance. Let us think over a few of these. I name, depict and consider God like a human. After all God is our Heavenly Father, so why shouldn’t He look like a benignant, wise grandfather? What nice, faithful things these are, aren’t these? But if we think about that God is the Lord of the Universe, the Totality, then we may realize what a big mistake the 'God-grandpa' image is... OK, we understood that. Then let Him be a king! After all the Bible also says that Jesus sits on the right hand side of God. Let’s enthrone them! How much God can be adored so, how fine is to make sacrifices for Him and worship Him in this way! What nice, faithful things these are, aren’t these? Let’s consider now what we have done: we have removed God from ourselves and we have reduced our relationship with Him to sacrifices and worship. God is there in ourselves and everywhere at the same time. He is the closest One and the farthest One at the same time. God is not a distant, well-defined object of worship but He is Everything that fulfills us. God is also the essence of our own existence. We can now feel what a big mistake the 'throne-God' was, can’t we? "Peter! You start to confuse me completely!" – the Reader might say here. "I understand and accept that God is Totality, that is why everyday pictures are not suitable to describe Him because they bare and impoverish all that inexpressibly rich content what God is. Consider God as Silence, Simplicity, Perfection, Consistency, Immobility, and Eternity! We are fine with these, aren’t we?" No, we are not fine with these either. In the same way how God cannot be personated, He can not be depersonalized either: because the essence of God is love. The essence of God is that He wants to show Himself to us, He wants to share all the Good what He is Himself with us. It is impossible to consider God as a concept because He wants to have a relationship with us. If we cast away God among to concepts, we make it impossible to have a direct love-relationship with Him and with this we lose the essence of God.

 

I understand if having read the previous paragraph the Reader has given it up. But we have not even started to talk about the nature of the Holy Spirit... It is much easier to think about Jesus! He was a human being after all. At least for a while... All right, He sometimes radiated like e.g. at the glorification on Mount Tabor (with regard to what it is good to know that most Church Fathers think that Jesus has always been radiating the Glory of the Father but only on Mount Tabor it was given to Jesus’ disciples to be able to see this at last... ), and sometimes the sky opened and the Father was talking to Him, and a few dozens of miracles happened, and there was that resurrection thing... but apart from all these Jesus can be considered as a human being quite well, right? Let’s think about this now! It is exactly our biggest problem with Jesus. That He cannot be taken away from us. He always remains with us, He always loves us and always wants to give Himself to us! And He always asks us to give ourselves to Him, too! Isn’t this scandalous? Yes, it is! Jesus is the stumbling stone (Romans 9:32). We cannot pass Him. We cannot avoid Him, we cannot ignore Him. That’s why most people usually seem fine with God ("God may exist but I have not met Him yet"), but they refuse Jesus flatly. But Jesus is the Door (John 10:9), even more: the only Door (John 14:6b), through which we can reach the wonderful Totality of God. Jesus is the crucified ladder who connects Heaven with Earth. How did all this start? How did the Incarnation happen? This is what the present essay is all about.

 


 

2. How purity and the touch of God are related to each other? The miracle of Incarnation

 

"My soul doth magnify the Lord.
And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour."

(Luke 1:46-47)

 

László Varga, Bishop of the town Kaposvár in Hungary said at one of his spiritual retreats that "we are images of the Trinity’s love relationship". Jesus has come down to Earth from the Trinity emptying himself slavishly (Philippians 2:6-8) because the Trinity wanted to involve us, human beings in the beauty and Totality of the love-relationship in which They live. This was the original purpose of Creation which was delayed by the human sin (and remains delayed even today...). During my summer spiritual retreat I felt the immense pain of the Trinity until man was left alone on Earth: there was no salvation, there was no possibility of Eternal Life, and the helping power of the Holy Spirit could be manifested very rarely (through some acts of prophets and kings), too. Let’s try to feel how much the Incarnation is an incomprehensibly wonderful evidence of God’s love, longsuffering and the consistency of His will.

 

"Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found grace with God.
Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb,
and shalt bring forth a son;
and thou shalt call his name Jesus.
He shall be great, and shall be called the
Son of the most High; and the Lord God shall
give unto him the throne of David his father;
and he shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever.
And of his kingdom there shall be no end.
And Mary said to the angel:
How shall this be done, because I know not man?
And the angel answering, said to her:
The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee,
and the power of the most High shall overshadow thee.
And therefore also the Holy which shall be born of
thee shall be called the Son of God.
And behold thy cousin Elizabeth, she also
hath conceived a son in her old age; and this is
the sixth month with her that is called barren:
Because no word shall be impossible with God.
And Mary said: Behold the handmaid of the Lord;
be it done to me according to thy word."
(Luke 1:30-38)

 

Let’s read the story of Annunciation and let’s think about what Totality of Purity was needed for that God’s only begotten Son could be conceived in Holy Mary! Even Moses and Elijah could not see God completely since they, as men not free of sins, would have died of the touch of God’s Totality. Only one human being has survived the touch of Totality – Holy Mary. That is why Holy Mary had to be full of Grace – even already from the moment of her birth. Let’s think about also what humility and obedience are reflected in the words of Holy Mary! Even her first question is about only "how", totally accepting everything what will happen. Let’s remember that purity is equal with putting everything related to God before anything else. May there come anything else as a consequence of this for Holy Mary than total humility and acceptance? How beautifully Complete is the Salvation Plan of God, isn’t it!? Finally: let’s spare some silent moments. Let’s say an immense prayer. Let’s feel how the Holy Spirit expands exaltedly again, in a way mankind have never seen it after the Creation, and due to the Father’s Grace, Christ’s agreeing sacrifice and Mary’s pure humility the Earth and the Sky became connected. The Incarnation was the story of mutual trust: a handshake between Heaven and Earth. Hallelujah! Amen.

 


 

3. What does the infant Jesus give us?

 

Let me ask the Reader to read the last part of the 2018 Christmas blog post. Pray until you reach that wonderfully pure and peaceful state what Jesus’ birth was. Feel the cozy smells, the satisfied smacking, the rumination of the animals. Feel the humility, the faith and the hope that accepted the arrival of Jesus. Feel how Jesus grows. Feel how Jesus grows in You! Feel how Jesus accepts You into Himself. Feel the Totality of Joy – in Jesus, "out there at the other side of the Door"! Then return to this world. Feel the freedom how You go in and come out through Jesus as the Door (John 10:9b). Also feel that each and every "going in" and "coming out" makes you purer. Feel that as You become more and more pure in your relationship with Jesus, you can get closer and closer to God. Feel the wonderful expansion of approaching God. Feel as time gradually stops, then peace comes, and your soul is filled with so much joy you have never been able to imagine before. What does the infant Jesus give us? He does not give us teachings. He does not give us miracles. He does not even speak to us. He just smacks with satisfaction. But by His coming to us, Totality has been born for us (and if we accept it: within us).

 

The birth of Jesus equals with joy and peace themselves. But just as in Jesus’ whole life, there is the totality of drama there already. There is darkness. There is abandonment. There is misunderstanding. There is already the shadow of infanticide of Bethlehem, too. Have you ever thought about WHERE Jesus was born? In a manger. WHAT is a manger? An animal feeding object. Jesus became a sacrificed food already at the moment of His birth... Let’s think about Jesus’ introduction in the church (Luke 2:21-39). Jesus was abiding the law: He was circumcised. Still, nobody wanted to accept him later... What is this introduction in the church after all? God’s only Begotten Son becomes offered to God according to the Jewish law? Is this really done by people? Have you ever thought of the absurdity and mystery of this act? (What a nice example is this that though Jesus always obeys the law but He also overrides the law Everywhere He appears. Even already as an infant incapable of doing anything. Is not this beautiful?) Or have you ever thought about that Joseph was a poor man and that’s why he could offer only a pigeon instead of a lamb as a sacrifice? So what have happened? Was even the Holy Spirit sacrificed – metaphorically? Or when the old Simeon predicts Jesus’ power of resurrection together with the sword that goes through Mary’s soul because of Jesus’ future sufferings? The birth of Jesus is not an event on its own. The whole mission of Jesus is included already in His birth – together with His crucifixion and the resurrection. God’s plan is Complete. It cannot be divided into parts. This is a very deep message – helping us to accept our own lives. With bad and good things. Completely. Undividedly. Amen.

 

How does the birth of Jesus answer the question asked in the first part of my essay? What is the real nature of God? Trinity became both personal and heavenly AT THE SAME TIME since the birth, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. This beautiful duality gives us the chance to be a part of Totality in the Kingdom of God – that can be found inside us (Luke 17:21b). Amen.

 

 

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