The
purpose of the incarnation is the deification of man. "God becomes man to
make Adam god" (Christmas hymn). "He became man, that we may become
god" (Athanasius the Great). "God became a man and man became a
god" (John Chrysostom). To the rationale of a moralist, the term
"became god", as it is used by the Fathers, such as Athanasius the
Great, is a scandal. This is why they talk about a "moral
deification". They are afraid to accept that deification alters "by
grace" to what the Triune God is "by nature" (uncreated, without
beginning, immortal). Christmas is, therefore, directly connected with the
Crucifixion and Resurrection, and the Ascension and Pentecost.
Christ
the God-man carved the path that every saved person is called to walk, united
to Him. The Annunciation and Christmas lead to Pentecost, which is the event of
the deification of man in Christ, within, that is, the Body of Christ. If
Christmas is the birth of God as man, Pentecost is the perfection of man as a
god by grace. By our baptism we partake in the incarnation, death and
resurrection of Christ, we too live "our own Christmas", our
re-creation. The saints, who arrive at union with Christ, or deification,
participate in Pentecost, and in this way they attain perfection and completion
of the regenerated man in Christ. Ecclesiastically this means the realization
of man, namely the fulfillment of the purpose of his existence.
No matter
how tiring theological words seem, especially to modern man who is uninitiated
in theology, it expresses no more than the reality of the experiences of our
saints. Only within this ecclesiastical and Christocentric experience can
Christmas be understood. Conversely, the weakness of the unregenerated man in
Christ is led to give meaning to Christmas through the formation of myths.
Those who have not tasted of the spiritual life, and thus unable to experience
Christmas, create myths about it within the limits of imagination and fiction,
losing its true meaning. As we shall see, this disorientation is always associated
with the denial of the mystery, as well as the weakness to live it, which
inevitably leads to its misunderstanding.
An
initial mythological answer to the question of Christmas is given by heresy,
which is the theology of reflection without experience. Docetism (from the
Greek δοκέω [dokeō], "to seem"), the most terrible heresy of all
ages, accepted God the Word as an imaginary illusion. Thus the presence of God
within the world is a phenomenol reality. For this reason the Docetists of
every age cannot tolerate, within the limits of their own reason, the
incarnation and birth of God as man.
Becoming
self-appointed defenders of the status of God, they are ashamed to accept
something that God Himself chose for our salvation: the path of motherhood.
That is, to be born of a mother, even if it is none other than the purest
creature of all human history, the Most Holy Virgin. All these can be classed
as "extremist" Orthodox (according to St. Gregory the Theologian),
because Docetism leads to Monophysitism, which is the denial of the humanity of
Christ. They are conservatives, keepers of forms, and easily scandalized. For
all of them truth, reality and history are scandalous. While others reject the
divinity of Christ, they deny His humanity. Yet Orthodoxy as Christianity in
its authentic form, is the "most historic religion" according to the
late Fr. George Florovsky. It truly lives in the energies of God for our
salvation and accepts its realism like the Theotokos did: "Behold the
handmaid of the Lord, may it be done to me according to your word" (Lk.
1:38)! "Like Pilate in the Creed", says a nice Serbian proverb.
Because Pilate, the most irresolute official in history, is a real historical
person, and he affirms the historicity of the Gospel. But in spite of the
Docetists, God the Word "became flesh (man, that is) and dwelt among us,
and we have seen His glory (the uncreated light of His divinity)" (Jn
1:14). Because "in Him dwells the fullness of the godhead bodily"
(Col. 2:9), that is, He is perfect God and perfect man.
The
incarnation and birth of the God-man is a scandal for human wisdom, which
self-repealingly and self-defeatingly hastens to characterize as
"foolish" the mystery of Christ, which culminates in the death by
crucifixion (1 Cor. 1:23). Is it possible for God to reach such a point of
self-emptying, so that He dies on a cross as the God-man? This is a scandal for
the wise of this world. For them the "gods" of this world usually
have men sacrificing themselves for them, and not they who sacrifice themselves
for humans.
How will
they accept the mystery of Divine Selflessness? "For God so loved the
world that He gave His only-begotten Son...for the salvation of this
world" (Jn. 3:16, 17). In the limits of "rational" and
"natural" theology, the divine element in the person of Christ is
eventually lost and all that remains is the human element, misunderstood and
misinterpreted. Because there is not a historical man named Christ, but He is
the God-man. The union of God and man in the person of God the Word is
"without confusion" and also "without division". Rational
interpretations of the Person of Christ prove unreasonable, because logic is
unable to capture what is "beyond logic".
The
legal-juridical consciousness also experiences Christ as a scandal. It seeks
social desirability for the incarnation and this ends in myth when not given
over to the Divine Word. The Franks developed through their distinguished
scholastic Anselm (11th c.) the myth of the "satisfaction of divine
justice". God the Word took flesh to be crucified/sacrificed and thereby
give satisfaction for human sin which offended God! The practices of the then
Frankish feudal society was displayed (mythologically) by God, and this takes
place in a Franco-Germanic fantasy of a Super-Emperor. But let John shout out:
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son..."
(3:16), and Paul: "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While
we were still sinners, Christ died for us"(Rom. 5:8). "No!" the
westerner will learn to shout back, for it is "to take revenge" and
"seek satisfaction".
This is
how another kind of "Christianity" was formed, which does not differ
from being the product of myth-making, since it submits God to our imagination
and superstitions. The rationalization and legalization of the divine-human
mystery is the greatest threat to Christianity in history.
The
religious (ritualistic) consciousness experiences the incarnation as a scandal,
as it resorts to the religionization of the Faith. The meaning of Christmas is
exhausted by ceremonies and loses its true purpose, which is
"adoption" (deification). "That we may receive the adoption as
sons..." (Gal. 4:5). It is the scandal of pharisaism, even if it is called
Christianity.
The
powerful experience the scandal since they are enemies of the
"Child". Herodism! Those who "regard themselves as rulers"
(Mk. 10:42), just as Herod, and who see the newborn Christ as a competitor and
a risk to their interests. This is why he "sought the soul of the
child" (Matt. 2:20). They misunderstand the true character of the royal
status of Christ, which "is without end". Christ as King of all
creation is its only true Lord, Creator and Savior, and not the Herods of this
world, that ruthless murderer, who seek to keep their power.
Saint
Gregory the Theologian offers the potential for a correct approach towards
Christmas, a spiritual one that is: "Therefore let us keep the Feast, not
after the manner of a heathen festival, but after a godly sort; not after the
way of the world, but in a fashion above the world; not as our own but as
belonging to Him Who is ours, or rather as our Master's; not as of weakness,
but as of healing; not as of creation, but of re-creation" (Homily 38,
"On the Theophany").
By Protopresbyter Fr. George Metallinos
Source:
From the book Παρεμβάσεις Ιστορικές και Θεολογικές (Historical and Theological
Interventions), έκδ. «Διήγηση», Αθήνα 1998. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
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