Augustine
He who had introduced all issues into existence, was introduced into existence within the midst of all issues. He made the day—He got here into the sunshine of day. He who was earlier than time, set His seal upon time. Christ the Lord was without end with out starting with the Father; however look what He’s immediately! It’s His birthday. Whose birthday? The Lord’s. He has a birthday? Sure, He has. . . . If He had not been begotten as a human being, we’d not attain our divine rebirth; for He was born that we could be reborn. . . .
His mom carried Him in her womb; allow us to carry Him in our hearts. By the Incarnation of Christ was a virgin made fruitful; let our breasts be made fruitful by the religion of Christ. She gave start to the Savior; allow us to give start to good deeds. . . .
On this assortment of 30 Christmas hymns, poems, and prose, literary professional Leland Ryken highlights how every passage is edifying and stylistically satisfying—permitting Christians to expertise these traditional works in a contemporary means.
After we say, “He was born of a virgin,” that is one thing extraordinary, you marvel. He’s God! You have to not marvel. Let our shock yield to thanksgiving. Have religion; imagine, for this actually so occurred. . . . He deigned to develop into man; what extra do you ask? Is it not sufficient that God has been humbled for you? He who was God was made man. . . .
In His start of a mom, Christ grew to become manifest in weak point; however, born of His Father, He exhibits His nice majesty. Amongst time-bound days He has His day in time; however He Himself is the Everlasting Day. . . . He lies in a manger, however He holds the world. He nurses at His mom’s breasts, however He feeds the angels. He’s wrapped in swaddling garments, however He offers us the garment of immortality. He’s given milk, however on the similar time is adored. He finds no room on the inn, however He builds a temple for Himself within the hearts of those that imagine.
That infirmity could be made sturdy, power has been made weak. Allow us to, subsequently, admire the extra His human start as a substitute of trying down upon it; and allow us to in His presence attempt to understand the abasement that He in all His majesty accepted for our sakes. After which allow us to be kindled with love, that we could come to His eternity. . . .
In that bridal chamber, that’s, within the Virgin’s womb, His divine nature united itself to the human; and thus the Phrase was made flesh for us, that, continuing from a mom, it would dwell amongst us; that, going earlier than to the Father, it would put together a spot for us by which to dwell. Allow us to, subsequently, joyfully and solemnly rejoice today; and thru the Everlasting One who was born for us in time, allow us to faithfully lengthy for the day everlasting. . . . Allow us to, all of us, one coronary heart and soul, with chaste hearts and holy needs, rejoice the birthday of the Lord.
Devotional Ideas
Many of the prose authors represented on this part wrote a lot in regards to the nativity and incarnation that particular person books have been printed containing their most well-known Christmas writings. One such ebook is Augustine’s Sermons for Christmas and Epiphany. Clearly Augustine’s (354–430) ideas on the paradoxes of the incarnation are just one facet of his Christmas writings.
Earlier than we take a look at Augustine’s paradoxes of Christmas, we must always observe his significance as somebody who lived by means of the nice change in spiritual pondering that occurred within the Western world when Christianity changed historical paganism because the ruling thought system. Augustine himself has recorded his breakthrough encounter with the concept of the incarnation. He had been raised on classical philosophy and mythology. When he learn the prologue to John’s Gospel, all the things initially appeared acquainted as a result of John had imitated the language of acquainted pagan writing, together with a hymn to Zeus that Greeks had been reciting for hundreds of years. To talk of God as a divine phrase (logos) was acquainted to the classical mindset. However as Augustine saved studying, he was shocked by the sudden infusion of one thing new: “The Phrase grew to become flesh and dwelt amongst us” ( John 1:14). This, writes Augustine, is one thing that the philosophers had not taught him. The Christmas season is a superb time for us to permit the shock of the incarnation to grab our creativeness as we search to appreciate the very fact of deity turning into human.
He finds no room on the inn, however He builds a temple for Himself within the hearts of those that imagine.
Turning to the meditation printed right here, it’s within the very nature of the incarnation to be paradoxical. There isn’t a different strategy to specific the phenomenon of Christ being each divine and human. A paradox is an obvious contradiction that, upon evaluation, could be seen to be true. In different phrases, a paradox must be resolved. It’s akin to the style of the riddle in needing to be “discovered.”
Three motifs converge in Augustine’s meditation on the incarnation. One is that Augustine has collected some placing paradoxes of the incarnation. It’s our process to ponder these seeming contradictions and decide how each halves of the equation are true. Secondly, Augustine the preacher is absolutely evident within the passage, as he intermittently exhorts us towards spiritual actions, akin to fruitfulness in good works and being kindled in love for Christ. Thirdly, we must always relish Augustine’s present for metaphor, as when he sees an analogy between Mary’s carrying Jesus in her womb and our carrying him in our hearts.1
As we solid a retrospective take a look at Augustine’s meditation on the incarnation, we will resolve to permit the paradoxes of the incarnation to be a everlasting a part of how we perceive the incarnation and to heed Augustine’s prompts towards a correct devotional angle towards Christmas.
Within the spirit of Augustine’s emphasis on the paradoxes of the incarnation, 2 Corinthians 8:9 offers us the paradoxes of the wealthy one who’s poor and the poor one who’s wealthy:
For you already know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that although he was wealthy, but to your sake he grew to become poor, so that you just by his poverty may develop into wealthy.
Notes:
- The paradoxes of the incarnation said by Augustine had been gleaned from a ebook of Augustine’s Sermons for Christmas and Epiphany, trans. Thomas Comerford Lawler (Westminster, MD: The Newman Press, 1952), 98–99, 104–6, 115. Reprinted by the gracious permission of Paulist Press. A succinct abstract of the relation of John’s prologue to the Hymn to Zeus and of Augustine’s encounter with John’s assertion in regards to the Phrase turning into flesh is obtainable on a single web page in William M. Ramsey, The Westminster Information to the Books of the Bible (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1994), 530.
This text is tailored from Journey to Bethlehem: A Treasury of Basic Christmas Devotionals by Leland Ryken.
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