The Word made flesh

The Gospel of John begins “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God … And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, …”

Incarnation of The Word

Incarnation of The Word

Jesus was conceived by Mary through the power of the Holy Spirit, the perfect union of the human and the divine. Mary was conceived through the love of her parents, Joachim and Anne. Mary was fully human, never divine. Because she was chosen to be the theotokos, the God bearer, it is a dogma of our faith that Mary was conceived and born without the stain of original sin and was filled with the sanctifying grace of baptism. We celebrate her Immaculate Conception each year on December 8th.

The Word, Logos in Greek, is God who became flesh (a fully human person.) It is important to understand that the Word never changed. At the moment of his conception in Mary’s womb, without the seed of man but through God’s almighty power, the human body and soul of Jesus were created and the divine Word assumed the man that was conceived. The Word became man, taking on the perfect human form, with a body and soul. The Word became flesh.

Jesus was fully human; he had a human soul and a human body. His mind contained human knowledge, which was always united with his divine wisdom. He possessed both human and divine wills which worked in perfect union with each other.

The Council of Ephesus (AD 431) declared that Jesus was the divine Son of God who became man in the womb of Mary. The one who was born of Mary is the Word, the same person who has existed with the Father and the Holy Spirit from all eternity.

We call this the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh. The word incarnate, derived from the Latin incarnari, means to “be made flesh,”

Understanding the incarnation of Jesus provides us with fresh insight as to why we bow during our recitation of the Creed when we say “…and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man.”

While the miracle of birth is certainly worthy of our praise and thanksgiving to God, the incarnation of the Word through the power of the Holy Spirit and the joyful acceptance of Mary to be the Incar is beyond measure. We should bow at the very thought of it.

About the author: Deacon Chuck

Deacon Chuck was ordained into the permanent diaconate on September 17, 2011, in the ministry of service to the Diocese of Reno and assigned to St. Albert the Great Catholic Community. He currently serves as the parish bulletin editor and website administrator. Deacon Chuck continues to serve the parish of Saint Albert the Great Catholic Community of the Diocese of Reno, Nevada. He is the Director of Adult Faith Formation and Homebound Ministries for the parish, conducts frequent adult faith formation workshops, and is a regular homilist. He currently serves as the bulletin editor for the parish bulletin. He writes a weekly column intended to encompass a broad landscape of thoughts and ideas on matters of theology, faith, morals, teachings of the magisterium and the Catholic Church; they are meant to illuminate, illustrate, and catechize the readers and now number more than 230 articles. His latest endeavor is "Colloqui: A journal for restless minds", a weekly journal of about 8 pages similar in content to bulletin reflections. All his reflections, homilies, commentaries, and Colloqui are posted and can be found on his website: http://deaconscorner.org. Comments are always welcome and appreciated. He is the author of two books: "The Voices of God: hearing God in the silence" which offers the reader insights into how to hear God’s voice through all of the noise that surrounds us; and "Echoes of Love: Effervescent Memories" which through a combination of prose and verse provides the reader with a wonderful journey on the way to discovering forever love. He regularly speaks to groups of all ages and size and would welcome the opportunity to speak to your group.

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