27 — THE WORD WAS MADE FLESH

December 23

Presence of God. — O Jesus, eternal Word, allow me to penetrate more deeply into the sublime mystery of Your Incarnation, so that my heart may be ever more seized by Your infinite love.

Meditation

1 — The Word is the second Person of the Most Holy Trinity. In the bosom of the one divine nature there are three Persons, three subsisting terms. We too are “subsisting”; “subsistence” is what allows us to say “I” and to attribute to this I the various actions we do. In God, in the divine nature, there are three Terms that can say “I” with regard to divine operations, operations common to all three, because proceeding from one nature possessed by all three divine Persons. The Word possesses the divine nature as the Father and the Holy Spirit do; He possesses their same divine properties of infinity, eternity, omnipotence, omniscience, etc.; all divine greatness and perfections are of the Word, as of the other two Persons. The Word performs the same divine actions as the Father and the Holy Spirit: intimate actions of knowledge and love that constitute the very life of the Most Holy Trinity; exterior actions of creation, of preservation of creatures, etc. The Word is God. St. John the Evangelist, beginning his Gospel, before speaking of Jesus’ temporal birth, presents to us the eternal generation of the Word existing “ab aeterno” in the bosom of the Father, altogether equal to the Father, yet distinct from Him. “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God” (1, 1). The Word is the one word of the Father that expresses the whole Father; the Father, giving to Him all His essence and divine nature, also communicates to Him all divine action. Thus the Word is efficient cause and principle of every natural and supernatural life: “All things were made through Him, and without Him was made nothing,” but the Word, splendor of the Father, is not only life; He is also light, light that reveals to men and women God’s greatnesses and mysteries: “in Him was life, and the life was the light of men” (Jn. 1, 3-4). Natural life, life of grace, light, knowledge of God: everything comes to us from the Word who is God, together with the Father and with the Holy Spirit.

2 — “The Word was made flesh.” Being God, the Word is eternal and immutable, therefore He necessarily remains always what He was: manet quod erat! But nothing prevents Him, together with the Father and with the Holy Spirit, from creating in time a human nature that, instead of having a limited and weak I like ours, remains totally under the government of His divine I. Thus He did; the human nature assumed by Him is the same as ours, but, instead of belonging to a human I, it belongs to the divine I, to the subsisting Person of the Word, and therefore the operations and passions of this human nature are also of the Word. The Word, after the Incarnation, has a twofold nature: the one divine nature, which He possesses in common with the Father and with the Holy Spirit; the human nature, which is of the same kind and has the same properties as ours.

The Word remained what He was and yet, while being God, did not disdain to assume human nature fallen through sin, “but emptied Himself, taking the nature of a servant and becoming like man; and in all His outward bearing recognized as a man” (Phil. 2, 7). This is what the immense charity of God has worked, He who, full of mercy for His poor creature sunk in the abyss of sin, did not hesitate to decree the redemptive Incarnation of His Only-Begotten. Thus the eternal Word comes to us exactly like the good shepherd who leaves everything to descend into the valley in search of the lost sheep. This is the fruit of the great love with which God has loved us!

Colloquy

“O divine Word, You are the adored Eagle whom I love and who draws me. You are He who, plunging toward the land of exile, willed to suffer and die to draw souls all the way to the center of the eternal Hearth of the blessed Trinity. You are He who, rising again toward inaccessible Light, which from now on will be Your dwelling, remain still in the valley of tears, hidden under the appearance of a white Host... O Jesus, allow me, in the excess of my gratitude, to tell You that Your love goes so far as madness! How can it be that before this madness my heart does not rush toward You? How could my confidence have limits?

“Ah, for You, I know it, even the saints committed follies, did great things because they were eagles... Jesus, I am too small to do great things... My folly consists in begging the eagles, my sisters, to obtain for me to fly toward the Sun of Love with the same wings of the divine Eagle. As long as You will, O my Beloved, I shall keep my eyes fixed on You; I want to be fascinated by Your divine gaze, I want to become prey of Your love” (T.B.G. Lt. 175).

Yes, my Jesus, I ardently desire to become prey of Your love; I desire that it invade me, purify and transform me, so that You may delight in fully carrying out in me Your merciful redemptive, sanctifying work.

You come to us to heal us of our misery, to transform us from children of sin into children of God. But how many times, alas, Your infinite charity is forced to halt before ungrateful hearts that close their doors to You. “He came to His own and His own did not receive Him” (cf. Jn. 1, 11). Those do not receive You who do not believe in Your love, those who distrust Your infinite mercy, those who have no confidence in You. And then, that excessive charity which brought You down from heaven to us, which found no unseemliness in You, eternal Word, assuming our poor human nature, finds an obstacle to its course in that very creature, creature of Yours, whom You came to benefit.

O eternal Word, my Savior, may I never place an obstacle to Your work; may my soul open itself wholly to the invasion of Your infinite merciful love, so that You may totally accomplish in me Your office as Savior, as Sanctifier.