Saturday, December 31, 2011

The impossibility of Christmas


Used with permission (CC: Fr. Ted Bobosh)


The Christmas season is upon us, that 3-4% of the year when we consider that God stepped out of eternity and into time. That's heavy. It should make us scratch our heads a bit. Either that which was eternal is eternal no more, or we who are temporal have been dragged into the impossible presence and activity of eternity.

Some part of God, somewhere between 0% and 100% (non-inclusive) has joined itself to creation. It is not 0%. To say it is 0% is Arianism. It is not 100%. To say it is 100% is modalism. And it is not 33%. To say it is 33% is to grossly oversimplify Trinity.

But He who has eternally been the son of God is now the son of a woman. Something incomprehensible has happened, and cannot be undone. That which constructed creation, and has up until now been separate from it, is now contained within it, circumscribed. Yes, this is impossible. And yet, it is true.

We should not be afraid of joining with the atheist in saying that our belief is unbelievable. It is unbelievable! Anyone who claims this belief is rational and sensible has a shallow belief.

It is impossible for something infinite to be bounded by margins. And yet it has actually happened.

It is impossible for that which is outside time to be affected by time. And yet it has actually happened.

It is impossible for a virgin to bear a child. And yet she has.

It is impossible for the intellect to apprehend the ineffable. And yet it has been handed to us.

It is impossible for God to become something other than God without ceasing to be God. And yet it has actually happened.

Our faith is impossible, irrational, incredible, uncredible, incomprehensible, and unbelievable.

And yet we believe it, because it is true. It has actually happened.

Christ is born. Glorify him!