The Word made flesh
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For the blood [of Christ] reveals that God wants nothing else but that we be made Holy, since if God had wanted anything different, He would never have given us the Word, His Only-Begotten Son. (St. Catherine of Siena)
Thinking about it, we’ve all had one of those moments where the Holy Spirit touched us through words spoken by another person. It could be a conversation, a homily, a podcast. You are unexpectedly struck with a feeling of confirmation, or feel convicted, in choices made and changes needed in your life. Or you might have a brief, sudden onset of peace, hope or joy that didn’t originate in your thinking, it just happened. If we ask God to show us where He’s been in our life each day (the examen), we will be pleasantly surprised at the illumination of His presence even in the worst of days.
Talking with a Holy monk one day, he said Jesus is the Word become flesh in these moments. When others speak His inspired Word, Jesus is made flesh to me. This struck me (yes, the Word made flesh in his speaking!). How often I think of those moments as one-dimensional—Holy Spirit inspirations. Yet all three persons of the Trinity are always present. In the person speaking those divine words, in that moment, is the Word, is Jesus to me. That God wants to become flesh and concrete to us. He takes the initiative first. He is always striving for us more than we are for Him.
If, on the other hand, we understand that the operation of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is one, differing or varying in nothing, the oneness of their nature needs be inferred from the identity of their operation. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit alike give sanctification, and life, and light, and comfort, and all similar graces. And let no one attribute the power of sanctification in a special sense to the Spirit, when he hears the Saviour in the Gospel saying to the Father concerning His disciples, “Father, sanctify them in Your name. ” So too all the other gifts are wrought in those who are worthy alike by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit: every grace and power, guidance, life, comfort, the change to immortality, the passage to liberty, and every other boon that exists, which descends to us. (St. Gregory of Nyssa)
I recalled reading that St. Francis of Assisi, when realizing the presence of God, would stop and allow himself to be fully taken in by it. How often do we do that in our day? The space of a single breath in our time is eternal in God’s. Let the Word made flesh take hold of you and take root in you today. 😊
For no one willingly does anything, which he has not first said in his heart. […] And this word is conceived by love, either of the creature or of the Creator, that is, either of changeable nature or of unchangeable truth. (St. Augustine)
Let us continue to pray for our worldwide Church, especially Pope Francis, all clergy and religious.
Lord Holy Spirit grant me sight to see the wondrous promise of divine love;
insight to see my own weakness;
delight in Your divine presence in my soul which You have made Your temple through sanctifying grace. Amen.
Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam 😊