Tangible Life in Christ
This union and one-ness with Christ, what is it? How do we become one with him? There is a need to ask this question again, because “life in Christ”, or “becoming one with him”, or “communing with him” can descend into mere catchphrases. If we only hold to these as concepts or illustrations, as theological constructs, they remain in the world of theory and imagination. Then, our faith is a fantasy.
The incarnation of God himself is no fantasy. Here we are in the Christmas season: this is not Christ's birthday, but rather God himself becoming man. If we could find salvation through theological theory, then there is no need for God to become man. If what we believe in our heads and hearts was enough, then all God needed to do was send down some tablets with the appropriate confession of faith for us to dutifully learn. If that is all we needed, then the Old Testament contains everything we need.
No, our faith is solidly, firmly, concretely, distinctly, palpably, physically, substantially, and tangibly founded in the matter of this world. God, who is uncreated and immaterial, was born into the matter, the stuff, of creation. And our faith is inextricably founded in his matter, his flesh. Christ meant exactly what he said, and he said it in the clearest words possible:
How can we fit within ourselves the body of he who holds the universe in his hands. How can we contain a consuming fire within us? How can that bread and that wine, simple, everyday objects, become a point of union with the Incarnate God? It is a Mystery.
This is how God chose to save us, through this “stuff” around us, this matter. Because of the incarnation, we work out our salvation, not in some ethereal, meditative, transcendental, outer-bodily, ecstatic mental state, or emotional high but in our flesh, through this creation. And that means we need all that physical stuff seen in every corner of Orthodoxy: prostrations, icons, fasting, music, bells, incense, relics, and even harmonious liturgical movements, feasting in community, and every other physical, beautiful, restorative act upon this matter in which we live.
I speak only briefly. If this all sounds like a tangent, ignore all I have said and just read the italics. Any one sentence of Christ’s words which I have shared here contain infinitely more meaning than this entire attempt of mine. “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life...You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
The incarnation of God himself is no fantasy. Here we are in the Christmas season: this is not Christ's birthday, but rather God himself becoming man. If we could find salvation through theological theory, then there is no need for God to become man. If what we believe in our heads and hearts was enough, then all God needed to do was send down some tablets with the appropriate confession of faith for us to dutifully learn. If that is all we needed, then the Old Testament contains everything we need.
No, our faith is solidly, firmly, concretely, distinctly, palpably, physically, substantially, and tangibly founded in the matter of this world. God, who is uncreated and immaterial, was born into the matter, the stuff, of creation. And our faith is inextricably founded in his matter, his flesh. Christ meant exactly what he said, and he said it in the clearest words possible:
Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him.I would not dare attempt to explain how this happens. I would only echo the reply Jesus was given right after he said those words: “This is a hard saying; who can understand it?” And many turned away from the Way, the Truth, and the Life that very day.
How can we fit within ourselves the body of he who holds the universe in his hands. How can we contain a consuming fire within us? How can that bread and that wine, simple, everyday objects, become a point of union with the Incarnate God? It is a Mystery.
This is how God chose to save us, through this “stuff” around us, this matter. Because of the incarnation, we work out our salvation, not in some ethereal, meditative, transcendental, outer-bodily, ecstatic mental state, or emotional high but in our flesh, through this creation. And that means we need all that physical stuff seen in every corner of Orthodoxy: prostrations, icons, fasting, music, bells, incense, relics, and even harmonious liturgical movements, feasting in community, and every other physical, beautiful, restorative act upon this matter in which we live.
I speak only briefly. If this all sounds like a tangent, ignore all I have said and just read the italics. Any one sentence of Christ’s words which I have shared here contain infinitely more meaning than this entire attempt of mine. “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life...You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
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