Et Incarnatus Est

I think it's about time I explain why the blog has its title.  It comes from the Latin original of the Credo (the one where we say "incarnate of the Virgin Mary", thanks to the new translation that debuted during Advent), which literally is, "et incarnatus est".  He was incarnate of the Virgin Mary.

The incarnation of Christ is extremely unique, very powerful, and astonishing.  What do you mean, he took on our skin and bones (that's what incarnate means) and dwelt among us?  This is at the heart of everything Christians believe.  We believe that God became man. This has extraordinary impact on all our lives, especially given our doctrine of baptism, where we outwardly look like we're just getting sprinkled with some water, but we are actually being initiated into the family of God.  That's pretty intense, no?  Literally, that's our adoption ceremony - we are literally cleansed and receive the Holy Spirit. We become heirs to God!!  This also means we take part in the life and love of the Trinity.

What else does this mean, though?  We are sons of God through this adoption, which is pretty incredible.  That means we are Christ to the world.  The incarnation of Christ happens again and again throughout history, especially through his followers.  What we do has a huge impact because of this!  We are ambassadors of Christ - what we do as Christians, the world follows as though we were Christ ourselves. We must be very careful to live as good examples.

There are other implications to the incarnation of Christ, though.  We are a people of Christmas and Easter.  Christ took on flesh, and sacrificed it.  That's why He did it.  He did it to pour Himself out for all of us.  We believe in this bodily reality of Christ, which is the source, summit, and summary of all our Christian lives.  Even marginal Christians understand that if you go to Church at all, you do it on Christmas and Easter, where we celebrate the body and corporal reality of Christ. The bodily reality of Christ is the singular most important belief we hold not only as Christians, but Catholics.  All the sacraments are about embodying Christ, giving Christ a body, being a tabernacle, being a physical, present symbol for the realities of God.  We are asked to be like Mary and carry Him about and bring Him forth as a gift in the world. We don't have control over what the world does with the incarnation of Christ; we are asked to bring Him forth anyway.

Now, in light of the coming feast of Corpus Christi (the body of Christ), we should remember that the bodily presence of Christ permeates all parts of our lives as Christians (because it is easy to forget - why do you think God tells the Israelites so many times to "remember"?).  We have the Eucharist!  I posted the homily Pope Benedict gave - the Eucharist is the ultimate proof that Christ has never abandoned us.  He is always physically present in the Eucharist.  St. Peter Emyard said that Christ takes on the form of a dead corpse in the bread, but His Heart is ever blazing with love and fully alive. He trusts us to take Him into the world and live out the incarnation every day.

Christians, in sum, have reason to celebrate.  Christ dwelt among us, as a incredibly present, corporeal person, and still dwells with us today!