Christmas is a great feast indeed! Besides the fact that it stands out due to the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, Christmas shows the sublime calibre of God’s love for us, fallen humanity. In Christ, He literally “exchanges” his heavenly privilege for us. In Latin, the famous theological phrase that nicely encapsulates this unfathomable mystery is ‘Admirabile Commercium’.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church speaks of this magnificent exchange when it tackles the mystery of Christmas. It says that for us “to become ‘children of God’, we must be ‘born from above’ or ‘born of God’. Only when Christ is formed in us will the mystery of Christmas be fulfilled in us. Christmas is the mystery of this ‘marvellous exchange’: O marvellous exchange!…” (CCC §526).
This life-giving doctrine has a long history, going back, of course, to the Bible itself. In his Second Letter to the Corinthians, St Paul alludes to Christ’s substitution. Thanks to his Incarnation, Christ takes upon himself our mortality and snivelling little selves and, instead, lovingly endows on us his great glories and heavenly perfections. The Apostle of the Gentiles writes: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich” (2 Cor. 8:9). This Pauline text rightly shows that, by becoming a human being, the Son of God embraced, once and for all, our weak humanity in order that we may now, thanks to His merciful love, eternally participate in his inaccessible divine nature!
In number 460, the Catechism of the Catholic Church states: “The Word became flesh to make us ‘partakers of the divine nature’ [2 Pt 1:4]; for this is why the Word became man, and the Son of God became the son of man: so that man, by entering into communion with the Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God’ [Irenaeus, Aduersus haereses 3.19.1]. ‘For the Son of God became man so that we might become God’ [Athanasius, De Incarnatione §54.3]. ‘The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might make men gods’ [Thomas Aquinas, Opusculum §57.1-4]”.
The theme of God who “puts on” our flesh by becoming one of us in Jesus Christ, and, in so doing, makes us, men and women, capable of living like Him in charity and joy, has been a prominent subject in the teaching of the Church Fathers. For instance, St Gregory of Nazianzus exhorted his congregation with the words: “Let us seek to be like Christ, because Christ also became like us: to become gods through him since he himself, through us, became a man. He took the worst upon himself to make us a gift of the best” (Orations 1.5).
For Pope Leo the Great, the Christian needs to keep continually reminding her/himself of this magnificent gift that s/he carries within him/herself. That is why s/he is to do his/her very best to keep it untarnished by avoiding sin. “Realise, O Christian, your dignity.”
“Once made a ‘partaker in the divine nature’ (2 Pet. 1:4), do not return to your former baseness by a life unworthy of that dignity” (Christmas Sermon 21.3). This “sweet exchange”, as the Epistle to Diognetus (dated early second century) aptly describes it, has the sole purpose of elevating us to the same life of the Trinity. This is how it was understood by that famous Bishop and a leading figure among the Church fathers, St Augustine. In his Exposition on the Psalms, 145.1, he explains it thus: “God is with us in order that we may be with him; he who came down to us in order to be with us is at work now to draw us up to himself”.
Strongly empowered by this Augustinian understanding of Christmas, let us pray: O Babe of Bethlehem, turn my enmity into love, my jealousy into joy, my envy into peace, my anger into patience, my strife into kindness, my selfishness into goodness, my party spirit into faithfulness, my dissention into gentleness, my impurity into self-control. Amen!
Fr Mario Attard OFM Cap