Listen as Msgr. Don reflects on the miracle of indwelling presence that is inherent in us all.

Good morning. I want to talk to you about a word: incarnation. And when we think about it most, we probably think of it around Christmas time, because that's when Jesus was born and Jesus came into the world as a unique human being. And that is that he was filled with divinity, divinity in flesh, divinity in a carnal being.

So when we talk about incarnation, we're talking about God's presence in something that he created. And there is something about God's presence being in all things. I mean, he is the mark of the artist. You can see God in nature. You can see it in all kinds of things. But there's something unique to this notion of incarnation. 

Obviously, if I can't awaken you to the fullness of what it really means, and maybe the best I can do is to say, “when you look at a crucifix, what are you looking at?” A man hanging on a cross with his arms extended and he's dying, and he's doing something in that act of dying that he says is going to change the world. It's going to create a new experience of what it means to be human, because it's going to connect two things. It's going to make all of us like the Christ. It is going to make all of us anointed with this powerful thing called God in me.

So the crucifix is an image of the horizontal world of humanity and the vertical world of divinity. And it crosses together, and it is in the heart of this figure, Jesus. What he's saying is, As I give myself and reveal to myself the love that I have for you, that God has for you, you're going to be able to unite with this divinity in a way that was never possible before.

Because there's too much shame, too much fear in our imperfect being. And the unity that God invites us into we intuitively feel that we're not worthy of that. But this idea that we are separate from God because of whatever sin or whatever is impossible to believe if you really believe in reincarnation. Because it means that God is in you by an act of sheer love, I am coming in you. It wasn't possibly for the crucifixion. It's why we call it redemption. It means that anything that separated you from God is now removed and any debt is paid. The incarnation is not just a word that refers to who Jesus is, it refers to a new life, an incarnational life that all of us have.

If you know that God is present in you, not because you've earned it or worked for it, that’s when your spiritual life starts. Then out of that indwelling presence of a God helping you, guiding you, awakening you, it all works. But if you think that this incarnation miracle didn't really happen, then you've got to do something to earn this indwelling presence of God, and that's where we get into trouble. That's where religion gets all of its power. 

Be careful you're not engaged in a work of trying to get God to love you. That's the given. He is already in you. It's finding that indwelling presence, being aware of it, having it awakened for you, that's the key to living in an incarnational life. So incarnation is a lot more than about Christmas. It's about today. It's about your life today and what you're going to do today. So feel it because it changes everything.

Have a good day.

Reflections Archives