“He came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man.” This line of the Nicene Creed, of course, states the truth of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. What do we do when we repeat those words every Sunday? We bow in reverence, gratitude and humility before God for such a great deed of salvation.
By not grasping to his divinity and instead coming into our human condition, Christ humbles himself. Bowing demonstrates our own humility before such goodness and generosity. We know it by heart, but do our hearts and mind grasp the magnitude of what Jesus Christ did? I’m not sure if we fully get it about his Incarnation.
The Incarnation shows us just what Christ is willing to do to save us from sin and what he is willing to do to become one with us. His becoming man also shows us where he was willing to go, from heaven to earth.
The temptations in the desert show us once again just how far and more he is willing to take his incarnation. Not only that, this moment shows us where he is willing to go. The where part is obvious; he went into the desert. Not only that, Jesus was led into the desert by the Holy Spirit. Going deeper, it means his union with his Heavenly Father led him there.
I’ve said it many times before, but it still makes me wonder; that the life and mission of Jesus was a continual descent into our human condition and struggle. We can call it the “downward mobility” of Jesus. In other words, we are talking about his willingness to love.
In today’s Gospel reading, we hear about Jesus living in connection with the struggles of life as he is tempted in the desert. It’s a moment Pope emeritus Benedict XVI characterizes as the Lord’s “descent into the perils that beset humanity.”¹
Just how far is Jesus willing to go for you, for us? In Jesus Christ, we have a Redeemer who has been there; we have a Redeemer who is there. Why? He does it for love.
Benedict XVI goes on to write, “For there is no other way to lift up fallen humanity. Jesus has to enter into the drama of human existence, for that belongs to the core of his mission; he has to penetrate it completely, down to its uttermost depths, in order to find the ‘lost sheep,’ to bear it on his shoulders, and to bring it home.”²
Let’s keep going on that theme. It’s not just about saving us and leaving us on a safe perch. What Jesus does today and always is about his closeness to us, his way of relating to us.
St. Augustine says, “He made us one with him when he chose to be tempted by Satan.” In the temptations, Jesus knows what he is doing and why he is doing it. It’s not that he has a need to be tempted, but that we need him in the midst of our temptations and struggles.
You will hear that it’s important to have a personal relationship with Christ. Sometimes that might make you wonder just what does it mean? The key to understanding it is to realize that a relationship with God in Christ is his initiative.
Christ doesn’t just want a relationship with you and me and all of us, he does a lot to try and set it up. In other words, Christ goes to great lengths to show us his love.
In Satan, it’s about falling into temptation. It’s all about him. In Christ, it’s about falling in love. The good news is that, unlike Satan, Christ is all about us.
The peace of Christ be with you! Fr. Charles Johnson, O.P.
Notes:
¹ Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration (New York: Doubleday, 2007), 308.