Merry Christmas! As we’re still in the midst of this Christmas season, we continue to reflect on the mystery of the incarnation. I would like us to ask a simple yet fundamental question, “Why does the incarnation matter to us?” Some might say doctrinally, “The incarnation is the most important teaching of Christianity.” It really is but I want to know why it matters to us on a personal level and how it affects our personal lives. It is a simple truth that we can only care about something when that something has some impact on our lives. In other words, for the incarnation to matter to us on a deeply intimate level, it should bring some radical transformation in our lives. Otherwise, it is just a mere concept that really has nothing to do with our lives.
There is only one way to keep this mystery of the incarnation as living and real, which is to experience it. All of us are to experience the mystery of the incarnation personally. No one can do it for you. Only you can do it for yourself. Understanding the mystery of the incarnation intellectually doesn’t do much to actually change our lives. It is important to make sense of it, yet again it can become a true wisdom only after you experience it. Experience the mystery of the incarnation first. Then try to make sense of it intellectually. Experience it again with that understanding, which will be deepened by both experience and knowledge you gain from that experience. Continue this process until it truly becomes yours, not just some spiritual knowledge but spiritual wisdom. Then, my original question of why the incarnation matters to us can be answered. It matters to us because it transforms us. Or we can say, according to Paul Yoon, he says it matters to us because it is SUPPOSED to radically change us. Then another logical question follows, “Are we able to experience the incarnation mystery ourselves?” Yes, we can. The collect for today explicitly tells us this: “Almighty God, you have poured upon us the new light of your incarnate Word.” The new light of the incarnation is poured upon us. This light is God’s very presence in us, being one with our very being, God’s eternal union with us. This, we call “grace,” because there is nothing that we did to have it. Grace is something that we receive from God without having to do anything. Grace is free of charge. But there’s something we are to do. The next line in the collect for today mentions what we are to do: “Grant that this light, enkindled in our hearts, may shine forth in our lives.” While the new light of the incarnation is already poured upon us, meaning it is given regardless of our merit or worth, whether it is to be enkindled is up to us with the help of the Holy Spirit. Then, what’s at stake is how we set this new light of the incarnate Word/Logos on fire, which means how we become more attentive and aware of this new light. This spiritual exercise of being attentive to the new light of the incarnation can be called “contemplation.” Simply put, it is to look at the new light. The more we look at it, the more we sense its presence. The more we are aware of its presence, the warmer it gets. There are many ways to do this. You can repeat a phrase over and over again. The Jesus Prayer is a good example. One repeats, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” As one utters this prayer repeatedly and mindfully, one is solely concentrated on one important thing, the new light. Focusing on breathing can also be another good example. Breathing in and out at the same pace helps us concentrate. Some might use the method of Centering Prayer in which one repeats one simple word. Whichever practices one uses, the purpose of doing it is the same. It is to raise one’s awareness of the new light of the incarnate Word by which I mean one’s awareness of God’s eternal oneness with us on the most intimate and personal level. Where we can get in touch with the new light of the incarnation, it is where we feel the unconditional love of God. Just as the new light of the incarnation is poured upon us solely by God’s own initiative to which Jesus of Nazareth revealed, it is the very place where we experience God’s love. This love is the source of all kinds of love that manifest among parents and children, families, and friends. One common expression of those who have experienced this love of God through the new light of the incarnation is that they call themselves as “God’s children.” St John in today’s gospel lesson tells us God gave power for us to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God That power is the new light of the incarnate Word/Logos. Again, this is not the power that we ourselves created, but was given from God alone. All we gotta do is to see it, to be aware of it, to be attentive to its presence. St Paul in the second lesson talks about the same thing. I’ll read it again for us: “...when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’ So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God.” When we reach deeper into the new light in us, we experience love and call that love as love or Abba Father or Amma Mother or whichever word that comes true to our hearts. Looking for the source or the root of our being seems to be our natural human desire. Yesterday on NPR, I read an article about U. S. adoptees returning to South Korea to trace their roots.* I will post the article on our facebook page so that you can listen and read it if you’re interested. One of the tragic and heartbreaking comments that one of the adoptees shares is that “I feel like I was sold. I feel like I don’t know who I am. I don’t even know if my name is real or my birthdate is real.” Their stories tragically show us how not knowing the root can hurt us so deeply. This pain coming from not knowing one’s root or identity is not just limited to the adoptees but happens to all of us whenever we aren’t sure of ourselves, haunting ourselves with guilt, shame, or any kind of self-attacking inner voice, or when the foundation that we wished to last forever is shaken. But for us Christians, the gospel, the good news is this mystery of the incarnation. The new light of the incarnate Word/Logos is poured upon us. This new light can never be extinguished. This incarnation mystery of God being one with us is eternal. During this Christmas season, I encourage all of you to be more attentive to the light, be more aware of the light in your hearts. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. AMEN. *The NPR article can be found here: https://www.npr.org/2019/12/27/775355015/feeling-like-we-belong-u-s-adoptees-return-to-south-korea-to-trace-their-roots?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&fbclid=IwAR3C4zhfKjUA8OU7SMTi-OxbBScxZq0k2K2G429iDwUvJBuHzxMIQm_gGg4 |
Paul"...life up your love to that cloud [of unknowing]...let God draw your love up to that cloud...through the help of his grace, to forget every other thing." Archives
January 2025
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