👉🏾👉🏾👉🏾 The Ineffable Mystery of the #Incarnation Expounded
Brethren, gather ye in the light of understanding as we delve into the profound mystery of how the Divine Word, co-eternal and consubstantial with the Father and the Holy Spirit, assumed humanity. Let us with careful and pious minds consider the teaching before us, reflecting upon each element with the diligence of a scribe and the awe of a pilgrim approaching holy ground.
The Preliminary State: Divinity and Humanity Distinct
Before the wondrous union of Tawahdo, divinity and humanity existed as two distinct natures and two distinct entities. Here, God the Son, omnipresent and omnipotent, shared one nature with the Father and the Spirit, yet stood apart from the manifold weaknesses of flesh, which encompasses earth, wind, fire, and water, and the soul's qualities—heart, prophecy, and life.
The Mystery of Fusion: Two Becoming One
The fusion, a divine mystery beyond human comprehension, entails the coming together of these two distinct natures—divinity and humanity—without alteration or dilution. This mystical union does not entail the physical enlargement of the divine or the diminution of the human but a sublime integration where each nature retains its properties yet becomes entirely united in the person of Christ.
Saint Theodosius and the Unified Nature
Saint Theodosius the Cenobiarch, with profound clarity, taught us that post-integration, we no longer speak of two natures but one. Echoing the ancient faith of our forebears, he professed that in Christ, divinity and humanity are not two but one, indivisible and singular, manifesting the fullness of God in the flesh.
St. Cyril's Proclamation of Unity
St. Cyril of Alexandria, a bulwark of orthodoxy, asserted the indivisibility of Christ’s nature through the analogy of economy, where the riches of the Word are as inseparable from the body as the body’s riches are from the Word. This unity signifies that in Christ, the divine and human are not merely adjacent but are profoundly one.
The Immutable Transformation: God Becoming Man
The transformation into flesh, as described by the holy fathers, was not akin to the changing of substances as seen in miracles like water turning to wine. Instead, it was a unique and singular event where the Word became flesh—fully God and fully man—without divinity converting into humanity or vice versa, an eternal union sanctified by the incarnation.
St. Gregory the Great on Divine Constancy
St. Gregory the Great illuminated this truth by teaching that the omnipotence of God, the Creator of all, did not diminish upon His incarnation. From eternity, as the Word, He was with God, and in time, born of the Virgin Mary, He became man, not altering His divine essence but humbling Himself to dwell among us.
The Irreversible Union
This union, unlike the temporal changes seen in nature—such as Moses’ staff transformed into a snake or the mixing of milk and water—remains forever unaltered and indivisible. St. Sawiros affirmed this, declaring the heresy of those who would suggest Christ's divinity could be separated from His humanity.
The Perpetual Presence of Divinity in Humanity
Saint Iokandios articulated that in every act of Christ, the divinity was never absent. Whether in moments of quiet solitude or in the agony of the cross, the divine nature was fully present, unseparated by any human act, underscoring the eternal and unchangeable devotion of God towards us.
The Unique and Wondrous Union
Thus, the union of divinity and humanity in Christ is not a mere juxtaposition nor a blending that alters the essence of either nature. It is a profound unity, likened to a sword sheathed in a scabbard or ink absorbed by the pages of a book, where each retains its distinct properties yet participates fully in a singular, divine mystery.
(Continued) 👇🏾