What We Can Understand: Second Wednesday of Advent

We cannot conceive how the Divine Spirit dwelled within the created and human spirit of Jesus.... What we can understand...is that our own...existence is...but a faint image of the Divine Incarnation itself - the same theme in a very minor key.
~ C.S. Lewis, Miracles, p147

The Incarnation is a mysterious paradox. We believe that Jesus if fully God and fully human. We believe that the Divine Spirit dwells completely within the Human Spirit of Jesus. How can this be?

It's stuff like this that causes skeptical or scientifically minded men and women to turn away from Christianity. These claims get labeled as fantastic, as religious fantasy, as a mythological legend. There are plenty of stories of the ancient gods who have a human mother and divine father. Stories abound of men who were attributed the title of divinity. So isn't Jesus of Nazareth just another one of those kind of events?

C.S. Lewis made the transition from atheist and skeptic to believer and follower of Jesus. A brilliant thinker and writer, Lewis wrestled with many of the difficult faith issues of his day. His engagement in hard to understand ideas didn't lead him away from faith in God, but towards Him. You may not understand everything about the Incarnation or Christianity, but your doubts don't have to undermine your faith.

The Incarnation - God taking on flesh - is a belief that stretches our imagination. But there are other stories of Scripture which carry this same seed of belief. In the beginning, God created man and woman and breathed life into them - put his Spirit in them, made them in His image. As Lewis says, we are "a faint image of the Divine Incarnation itself - the same theme in a very minor key." It takes faith to accept this as true, it takes work to understand.

Jesus said: Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father (John 14v9, NIV). Paul said that the Church is the body of Christ. If we believe in the Incarnation, if we believe that our own existence is but a faint image of the Divine Incarnation, then we believe in the high value of humanity, the sacredness of life, and the sacrificial and servant nature of the church. What we believe matters, it undergirds all our actions. How well do we understand this?

Can you make a connection between your belief in the Incarnation and your work in the world?