At Christmas, the Church celebrates the great mystery of the Incarnation. In the Incarnation, the Word–the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, the Son of God–assumed a full human nature, body and soul

At Christmas, the Church celebrates the great mystery of the Incarnation. In the Incarnation, the Word–the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, the Son of God–assumed a full human nature, body and soul. This is what the Church refers to each Sunday when, during the recitation of the Nicene Creed, she proclaims, “For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man.”

Throughout the Church’s history, and especially in its early centuries, many heretical theologians denied the reality of the Incarnation. To simplify things a bit: Some taught that Jesus had no divine nature; others that there was no human nature; or that the natures were not united in one person. And there were other variants besides.

Each of these heresies denied what Catholic theologians call the “hypostatic union.” That theological term refers to the union of the divine and human natures in the one person of Jesus Christ.

In truth, the Incarnation is a great gift to us. Through the Incarnate Lord, and by him, we can draw close to the Father. He does this as the High Priest. Jesus, the High Priest, has taken our human nature and turned it into an altar. On the cross, he is both priest and victim, altar and sacrifice. Because of the most wondrous union of the divine and human natures, he can perfectly share the Father’s gifts of grace with us and bring our prayers and sacrifices before the Father in the Holy Spirit.

Jesus atoned for our sins when, hanging upon the Cross, he cried out “It is finished.” The sacraments make present to us the saving grace Christ won for us by all that he did and suffered during his earthly life. The faithful first become heirs to God’s gifts through Baptism, when we are incorporated into the Mystical Body of Christ and are united with him in his Passion, Death, and Resurrection.

In addition to Baptism, Christ configures a soul to himself in the sacrament of Holy Orders, where a man becomes a deacon, priest or bishop. The priest and bishop have a special share in the priesthood of Christ in that they are empowered to carry out functions–such as offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass–that are essentially public in nature and which sanctify God’s people as a whole. At Mass, of course, we receive the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus in the Eucharist. In other words, the Eucharist is another fruit of the Incarnation.

It may seem a bit dark to contemplate the Cross at the same time as the creche. Yet, the two events are inextricably linked. The wood of the manger foreshadows the wood of the Cross. As the dear old Christmas carol “Good Christian Men, Rejoice” reminds us, “Christ was born to save! Christ was born to save!”

“Good Christian Men, Rejoice,” with that poignant reminder, is a translation of the hymn, “In Dulci Jubilo,” by the medieval Dominican friar Bl. Henry Suso (1295-1366). Dominicans have, since the beginning of the Order, treasured the mystery of the Incarnation in particular. St. Dominic (1170-1221) founded the Order to preach against the Albigensian heresy, which denied the reality of the Incarnation and taught that the body was evil. We thank God that he raised up a priest after the heart of Jesus to preach the reality of Jesus’s Incarnation. As Dominicans, we are called to follow his example, preaching everywhere and to everyone the reality of the Incarnation: In Jesus Christ, the Eternal Son has become one of us and has brought us all the Father’s gifts of grace.

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