An Advent Reflection

Advent is a time of preparation, waiting, and expectation.  Israel had to wait nearly an entire millennium from the end of the reign of King David to the coming of the Son of David, Jesus Christ.  In this vast stretch of time, Israel endured a schism causing the division into the northern kingdom (Israel) and the southern kingdom (Judah), exile (Israel first in c. 720 B.C. and Judah later in 586 B.C.), a return from exile (538 B.C.) and foreign rule under various nations, a far cry from the ideal rule of Yahweh and his anointed as envisioned by the Psalms and the prophets.  From the glory of Solomon, David's successor, until the advent of Christ, the contours of the history of the people of Israel starts with an apogee, decreases to a nadir in the exile, and plateaus in an uncomfortable interim post-exilic period.

What I have described above is Israel's pre-incarnational perspective.  From the perspective of humanity, however, the time of waiting is longer.  Since its emergence on the earth, the human race has recognized something about itself which is deeply disturbing.  The earliest memories of humanity's collective consciousness is checkered with murders, lies and intrigue.  The gods were often depicted as tyrants who ruled the earth according to their whims, and human beings were seen as the mere playthings of the gods.  Shakespeare puts this thought in the following words: "As flies to wonton boys are we to th' gods, / They kill us for their sport" (King Lear, Act IV, scene 1, 36-37).  It took the coming of Christ to convince the gentiles (at least on a wide scale) that they are not subject to blind fate or indiscriminate chance and that instead God providentially oversees the activities of human beings.  God speaks to us lovingly through the incarnation.  As the Word, Jesus speaks the words of God to us in such a way that we can understand them.  Through his incarnation, the gentiles realized that God shares our lot.  God becomes a human being not only for the sake of solidarity but also to point the way back to God and to encourage us to believe and to trust in him.

I want to broaden the perspective of humanity to a cosmic perspective.  From the first moment of its creation, the universe was in a special relationship with God.  Created by God, the universe was entirely distinct from him.  There were two opposing forces, however, which led to the entrance of God into the universe through the incarnation.  The first is entropy and the second is evolutionary biological development.  St. Thomas Aquinas argues in Summa Theologica III, Q. 1, a. 3, resp. that the Son became incarnate so as to provide a remedy for sin, i.e. moral entropy, which the book of Genesis tethers to death, the ultimate end of an organism's biological entropy (cf. Gen. 2:17).  The means through which he became incarnate, however, is through the evolutionary development of human beings.

From the first moment of the universe's existence, the universe was progressing, eventually developing stars and galaxies.  One of these stars, the sun, had a planet revolving around it which would eventually form and sustain intelligent life in the form of human beings.  Christianity holds that God became one of these human beings in the person of Jesus Christ.  The entire pre-incarnational period (from creation to the incarnation) can be seen as a period of cosmic preparation for the entrance of God into the universe through the development of human beings.  For billions of years, matter had developed so as to allow for the incarnation in the birth of Jesus.  As Mary gave birth to her savior, so too did the universe give birth to its savior.  According to modern science, the iron in his blood, which was shed on the cross, was the result of a supernova, the violent death of a star.  And it is the light of a star (cf. Matt. 2:1-2; perhaps the "star" was Jupiter or a supernova) that first points the gentiles to the direction of Christ, who is "the light of the world" (John 8:12, RSV).

Three Wise Men, CC Image courtesy of ideacreamanuela2 on Flickr

This Advent and Christmas season, let us contemplate the national, human and cosmic scopes of the drama of the incarnation so as to cultivate a deeper appreciation for the momentous entrance of the Son of God into human history.  May we be inspired as we pray for the coming of Jesus into our hearts as he came into the universe through his birth at Bethlehem, and may his light lead us until "the morning star rises" (2 Pet. 1:19, RSV).