December 15–21, 2024 (Eastern): Advent III: When the Incarnation Mystery Is Fulfilled
December 29 – January 4 (Old Calendar)
The Incarnation Fast: Week 5
The Seventh Day
In the beginning in the Garden of Eden, “God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good” (Gen. 1:31). God had formed man from the dust of the ground “and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being” (Gen. 2:7).
Adam experienced the beginning of the seventh day of creation. “And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made” (Gen. 2:2–3).
After the unfathomable work of preparing a home for humanity, the crown of creation came to life before His eyes. The Almighty enjoyed watching Adam, speaking with him, explore the Garden with him, showing him how to care for creation, and sustaining him. “Rejoicing in His inhabited world, and my delight was with the sons of men” (Prov. 8:31).
We can’t fathom the heavenly life Adam enjoyed with God, marked with the characteristic of the seventh day: Rest. “For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said: ‘So I swore in My wrath, “They shall not enter My rest,”’ although the works were finished from the foundation of the world” (Heb. 4:3).
One of the consequences of the fall was losing God’s rest. Man’s stewardship of the Garden was carried out in blessed rest. After the fall sin cursed the ground, and work became exhausting toil. “Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life” (Gen. 3:17).
But before the fall into sin and death, God rested with Adam and dwelt with him continuously. “And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day […]” (Gen. 3:8). Adam and Eve recognized the sound of God walking in the garden because they often walked together.
God Seeks Rest Among Men
God’s Spirit rested with man and made him whole. Continuously overflowing with the glory of God, man was simple and innocent, like the angels. But when man fell into sin, this blessed state of rest disappeared from Adam and Eve. Suddenly, they experienced fear, anxiety, and shame, completely foreign to their being. This deep vacuum, which God had previously filled, was invaded by wounds, needs, cravings, confusion, and spiritual darkness. We lost the blessing of the seventh day.
“And the Lord said, ‘My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.’ […] Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:3,5).
But God began His great rescue plan, and its final stage is our upcoming celebration, the Incarnation of the Son of God. “Thus says the Lord: ‘Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool. Where is the house that you will build Me? And where is the place of My rest?’” (Isa. 66:1)
God searched for a place of rest among His creation. First, a tabernacle in the desert. “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest” (Ex. 33:13). Then a temple in Jerusalem. God said to King David: “Behold, a son shall be born to you, who shall be a man of rest; and I will give him rest from all his enemies all around. His name shall be Solomon, for I will give peace and quietness to Israel in his days. He shall build a house for My name, and he shall be My son, and I will be his Father; and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever’” (1 Chron. 22:9–10).
The Word Tabernacled
Finally, when Jesus Christ—the Prince of Peace (Isa. 9:6)—entered our world, the original image of Adam returned. God told St. John the Baptist: “‘Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God” (John 1:33). The Holy Spirit found rest in Jesus. Until this point, the Holy Spirit only came upon God’s servants for certain periods as an anointing for a specific purpose. Now, the Holy Spirit found a dwelling place.
John 1:14, who summarizes the mystery of the Incarnation, begins with: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” The Greek word translated “dwelt” is skenoo, which means “to tent,” “to encamp,” “to occupy,” “to reside.” It means that “the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
In Jesus we behold the glory of God, just as “the cloud covered the tabernacle of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tabernacle of meeting, because the cloud rested above it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle” (Ex. 40:34).
Finally, in Jesus Christ, God found rest among us. And those who come to Christ will gradually reenter the state of Eden, and “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:7). “For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath” (Matt. 12:8).
“There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest…” (Heb. 4:9–11a). “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” (Matt. 5:9). “For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given … and His name will be called … Prince of Peace” (Isa 9:6). And all the heavenly host praised God on Christmas day: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” (Luke 2:14). “For He Himself is our peace…” (Eph. 2:14).
Through the mystery of the Incarnation, God stands with open arms to receive mankind into His rest. The day will come when “Jesus shall judge between the nations, and rebuke many people; They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore” (Isa. 2:4). Jesus will end all wars. “He shall speak peace to the nations; His dominion shall be ‘from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth’” (Zach. 9:10c).
Still The Seventh Day
We’re still in God’s seventh day, because there’s no “evening and the morning” phrase for the seventh day in Genesis 2. But we know Jesus is “the Bright and Morning Star” (Rev. 22:16), and He is “the Dayspring from on high [which] has visited us” (Luke 1:78). “But to you who fear My name the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings” (Mal. 4:2a).
What a contrast between God’s seventh day of rest—which even creation testifies to—and man’s state of turbulence. We can leave a warzone of utter human tragedy and travel to a distant forest or mountain top. There we’ll witness God’s seventh day: The calm rattling of leaves, the tinkling of the brook massaging pebbles, white clouds draping the valleys with their shadows and sunrays sailing with the wind. And when night falls, the majestic Milky Way off its display with shooting stars. What a world of difference between the unrest of the human heart and the rest of God.
On Christmas Day, we welcome Jesus Christ, whom the Father will “reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross” (Col. 1:20).
We see the promise to the entire creation of entering God’s rest ultimately fulfilled when the eighth day begins and God creates again: “Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. […] And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God’” (Rev. 21:1, 3).
Fullness
“For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell” (Col. 1:19). This fulness of God is the gift of the incarnation that we receive during the Incarnation Feasts as a little divine seed of Jesus’ divine-human nature. This is what Apostle Paul prays, that we “may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Eph. 3:18–19). This is demonstrated to the world through the Church, “which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all” (Eph. 1:23).
The grace of Incarnation that lands in our soul grows into the person of Christ, where all the fullness of God dwells. The gift we receive during the Incarnation Feasts is so rich we need at least four feasts to unpack what happens. Christmas, the Nativity of the Lord, is only the first Feasts we pass through during the six weeks after the Incarnation Fast.
May our hunger for the grace of fulness motivate us to enter the fifth week of the Incarnation Fast. Soon, we have fasted for forty days, and if you feel you haven’t really started, it’s never too late. The key for this upcoming week is still voluntary emptying of ourselves from our honor and status to increase hunger for the fullness of the human nature given to us in Jesus.
Emptying happens when we choose a simpler diet, typically vegan, and other ways of humbling ourselves. God may place us in situations where He invites us to unite with Jesus when His Son “made Himself of no reputation” (Phil. 2:7).
Sunday Gospel: Luke 14:16–24 (NKJV)
Then He said to him, “A certain man gave a great supper and invited many, 17 and sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, ‘Come, for all things are now ready.’ 18 But they all with one accord began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it. I ask you to have me excused.’ 19 And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them. I ask you to have me excused.’ 20 Still another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’
21 So that servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.’ 22 And the servant said, ‘Master, it is done as you commanded, and still there is room.’ 23 Then the master said to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. 24 For I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper.’ ”
The Great Supper
The Sunday Gospel for the upcoming week gives an image of the Father’s call to humanity by sending His Son to us. We’ll only focus on the first two verses: “Then He said to him, ‘A certain man gave a great supper and invited many, and sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, “Come, for all things are now ready”’” (verses 16–17).
It is sabbath—the day of rest, which we just highlighted—and Jesus “went into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees to eat bread” (Luke 14:1). Jesus tells this parable in response to one who said to Him: “Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God!” (Luke 14:15)
The “certain man” Jesus talks about is our Heavenly Father.
The “great supper” is the grand celebration after Jesus has returned to Earth. “Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!” (Rev. 19:9) “And in this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all people a feast of choice pieces, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of well-refined wines on the lees” (Isa. 25:6).
Those many invited are mankind, starting with the people of Israel. “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek” (Rom. 1:16).
Our Feast Is Prepared
“His servants” are both the prophets to the people of Israel, and the Church to the nations. What is our message to the world as we approach the Nativity? “Come, for all things are now ready.”
“In Him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4). As we celebrate the Nativity of the Lord, we celebrate “that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life—the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us” (1 John 1:1–2).
As this Life comes to us as a Man—“the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14), Jesus declared that “I am the bread of life” (John 6:35). Jesus was incarnated to give His life. “… and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world” (John 6:51).
When the Incarnation Mystery Is Fulfilled
The expression of the Incarnation culminated in the Eucharist. “And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, ‘Take, eat; this is My body.’ Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins’” (Matt. 26:26–28). If the Incarnation had never happened, we wouldn’t have any Holy Sacrament to celebrate, nor would we mystically receive the divine life of Jesus Christ.
But it is easy to overlook the next verse: “But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.” The Eucharist is the foretaste of the wedding supper of the Lamb after Christ has returned. Therefore, every time we receive Holy Communion, we mystically enter the holy bridal union with God.
The Incarnation began with the Nativity of the Lord, proclaimed throughout the following ages through the mystery of the Eucharist. The Incarnation is fulfilled in the future marriage supper of the Lamb.
This is our message to the world. This is what we are inviting mankind to join in celebrating during the Incarnation Feasts: responding to the Heavenly Father’s invitation to partake in the body and blood of Christ and become one with God.
“And the Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ And let him who hears say, ‘Come!’” […] (Rev. 22:17)
May our expectation increase this week, as we seek the grace to empty ourselves of our honor, that we may “seek the honor that comes from the only God” (John 5:44). May we obtain grace this week to eagerly expect and hunger for the Life that is coming. God invites us all.
Thank you for taking the time to read and journey with me into the third week of Advent. It is such a joy that you are taking part in this expedition, following the footsteps of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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