re:considering incarnation
[my year in review station 12]
The past month or so has been a reconsideration of the incarnation for me. Daran Freund has brought to my attention some improved language describing the reasons for the story of Christ coming as a babe — living as the Truth — dying sacrificially on the cross, and returning to life from the grave.
Reasons matter. And while we may never fully capture in words the reason for Christ “incarnating” — I think a reconsideration may be a healing process.
The widespread formula = (my overly simplified and bias version)
People ruin creation/humanity/existence through sin causing God to scramble for a fix — sending Jesus.
Incarnation then becomes a solution to a problem. While that is Good News — it can undermine what Scripture describes humanity as “God’s image bearers” and creation that was described succinctly and beautifully as “good.” Is there another way to see it?
Consider
a REWIRING of sorts from a Franciscan view of the Incarnation a selection from an article written by Seamus Mulholland OFM entitled “Duns Scotus and the meaning of Love.”
The Incarnation is the model for creation: there is a creation only because of the Incarnation. In this schema, the universe is for Christ and not Christ for the universe . . .
. . . the reason for the Incarnation is Love. The Incarnation becomes the unrepeatable, unique, and single defining act of God’s love. God, says Scotus, is what he is: we know that God exists and we know what that existence is: Love. Thus, if Man had not sinned Christ would still have come . . . The Incarnation is the effect of God freely choosing to end his self-isolation and show who and what He is to that creation.
The Incarnation, therefore, in Franciscan spirituality, is centered on Love and not sin. Sin has been given too much prominence . . . God loves us and then redeems us. Redemption is an act of love first and foremost, not an act of saving us from sin, and the first act of redemption is the Incarnation . . .
Franciscan Spirituality sees the Incarnation as the guarantee of union with God. It is not something to be hoped for or to be looked forward to — it is something, which is happening NOW. God is Love and that Love is our redemption and redemption is not primarily being saved from sin, but is rather the gift of the possibility of openness to the experience of the divine Other.
Scotus’ incarnational theology is not complex — it is utterly simple: God is love and all that has been, is, and ever will be is because God is love and is among us in Jesus who is ever present.
Take a few moments to reflect on and journal your thoughts.
What resonates or stands out from this reading?
Does it make you feel uneasy, or does it deeply resonate?
Sit comfortably and engage the practice.
Gazing with the Eyes of God an Ignatian Imaginative Meditation Exercise by Daran Freund
Allowing the Spirit to be your guide, image the Triune God gazing down upon the entire surface of the Earth, seeing if filled with human beings.
In his spiritual exercises, Ignatian describes the scene this way: “Men and women being born and being laid to rest…the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the happy and the sad, so many people aimless, despairing, hateful…so many undernourished, sick, and dying, so many struggling with life and blind to any meaning.”
What do you imagine humanity is saying? How do they speak with another?
Imagine and listen to what they are saying.
What do you imagine humanity is doing?
Imagine and observe their actions.
Take a few moments to reflect on and journal your thoughts.
Finally, what do you imagine the Trinity is thinking and feeling as they gaze upon humanity?
