The mighty Savior, which the
prophets foretold, is born in a cave, in Bethlehem (which means in Hebrew, “the
House of Bread”). He is laid in a manger,
a food trough.
He has entered fully into the world
and is immersed in our humanity. Now that he is human, He is destined to
experience the variety of human misery; cold, hunger, pain, loneliness, loss,
abandonment, betrayal. The sin of Adam oppresses
even Him, though He is completely without sin.
He will live a blameless life, though He will be blamed for much.
God, Master of the universe and the
Source of all being, has become a child.
He is Goodness itself, but because he is now a son of Adam, he will
receive the punishment of Adam’s sin and endure every kind of evil. This baby, called Jesus, is none other than
the Word of God, the One Who holds all things in existence. In His own Person, He has restored the unity between
God and man, and will do what is the perfect contradiction of the Fall of
Adam. Man, who desired to be like God, reached
after the one forbidden tree. God, Who
desires to be with man, has become man, but will reach after a very different
tree. Out of pride, Adam tried to lift
himself up as a god. Out of extreme humility, God has come down so that he may
be lifted up – onto the bloody and
despicable cross – and make himself the final and perfect sacrifice on our
behalf.
Jesus Christ has not come to put on a show. He was sent
to accomplish a mission. He was born a
man in order to die; He will die in order to rise; and once risen, He will become an even greater man than Adam was in his innocence.
Adam was banished from paradise so
that he would not eat from the Tree of Life, a fruit which he did not deserve. Eve took down a fruit from the Tree of
Knowledge of Good and Evil. Mary, the
New Eve, will take down her son from the Cross, which will be for us the new
Tree of Life. Food will again be laid
out on that Tree. He will continue to come
down into this desert wasteland of sin as the new manna, the “bread from
heaven,” the Eucharist, so that we may remember and re-offer that same
sacrifice of the Cross.
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