Genesis 1:9-31: The Mystery of Incarnation
Monday, June 13, 2015
Richard Rohr, OFM in his June 5, 2015 tells us: “If incarnation is the big thing, then Christmas is bigger than Easter (which it actually is in most Western Christian countries). If God became a human being, then it’s good to be human and incarnation is already redemption. Francis and the Franciscans were the first to popularize Christmas. For the first 1,000 years of the church, there was greater celebration and emphasis on Easter. For Francis, if the Incarnation was true, then Easter took care of itself. Resurrection is simply incarnation coming to its logical conclusion: we are returning to our original union with God. If God is already in everything, then everything is unto glory! Much of the early church did not have trouble with what many would now call universal salvation (apocatastasis, as in Acts 3:21). We are all saved by infinite love and mercy anyway. ‘God alone is good’ (Mark 10:18), so there’s no point in distinguishing degrees of worthiness. Everything in creation merely participates in God’s infinite goodness, and our job is to trust and allow that as much as possible.
“As Matthew Fox said, we made a terrible mistake by starting with ‘original sin’ (a phrase not in the Bible); we absolutely must begin with original blessing. ‘God created it, and it was good’ is stated six times in a row in our Creation story (Genesis 1:9-31), ending with ‘indeed it was very good!’ But, up to the present time, most of Christianity concentrated on what went wrong with our original goodness . . .
“The Franciscan starting point is not sin; our starting point is Divine Incarnation itself. So our ending point is inevitable and predictable: resurrection. God will lead all things to their glorious conclusion, despite the crucifixions in between. Jesus is the standing icon of the entire spiritual journey from start to finish: divine conception, ordinary life, moments of enlightenment (such as his baptism, Peter’s confession, and Jesus’ transfiguration), works of love and healing, rejection, death, resurrection, and ascension. That is not just Jesus; it is true for all of us.”
Richard Rohr, OFM, Adapted from an unpublished talk and posted on June 5, 2015 at: https://cac.org/richard-rohr/daily-meditations
Christ is present in all of creation. Christ is present in each of us. This is the mystery of incarnation. We know that God creates the universe and the microverse out of great love and deep compassion. We know that Christ comes to walk among us as salvation and redemption. We know that the Spirit abides with us to console and heal. This we know and yet it is mystery when we wonder . . . how is it that God loves us this deeply and this well? And how is it that we fail to trust this great love?
To read a commentary about the mystery of the incarnation, click on the image above or visit: http://www.catholica.com.au/ianstake/023_it_print.php
The Noontimes 
The Divine Dilemma of St. Athanasius
In “On the Incarnation”, St. Athanasius poses the divine dilemma of God stating that it is impossible for God who creates man to let him perish while at the same time He cannot deny His own rule that man should be punished to death because of their sin. Thus, the divine solution is not repentance of man but the Incarnation of the Word in order to be capable of dying as substitution of man. By doing this, the Word our Creator becomes the Word our Redeemer.
St. Athanasius believed that God’s glory would be challenged if He failed to keep His word in punishing sin, but he also believes that God’s glory would be called into question if He failed to set creation back to right. God’s nature requires both justice and glorified creation.
It would seem an affront to God’s dignity that his work should be undone. And it would seem unworthy of his goodness to let the creature he created in his image come to nothing. On the other hand, how could God go back on his word? He had warned man that he would die. Would it not be an even greater indignity for God to be made a liar?
This sets up the logic of the Incarnation, namely, it happened out of necessity. The ‘divine dilemma,’ as Athanasius calls it, is that we are at risk of non-existence and God felt compelled to do something about it. The Incarnation becomes a matter of divine honor to restore us.
St. Athanasius proceeds to show the rational necessity of the Incarnation for the redemption of mankind. Only through the true Image of God Himself, could the Image of God in man be restored. Only through the death of the human body assumed by the Word Himself could the penalty of death be lifted from mankind without compromising the veracity of God the Father. Only through the Incarnation of Jesus, through Whom the universe and man were created, could humanity be saved from corruption and death, and be revitalized through communion with the life-giving Word.
The divine dilemma is solved. Jesus would substitute Himself for our sins that we should be punished for. These are, in summary, the points of St. Athanasius’ doctrine of salvation promoted in “On the Incarnation”.
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We can complicate the simple elegance of God’s love or we can accept it. We can spend our energy on defining God’s love or we can live it. Ultimately our challenge is to take the Gospel into the world with our lives rather than our words. Lest we become “white-washed tombs,” we will want to move beyond words to live out God’s incarnation as best we can. Some days I am successful at this . . . some days I am not. Thanks for inspiring us to move into the mystery and gift of incarnation.
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