The Incarnation

From a sermon by Saint Augustine, bishop

Awake, mankind! For your sake God has become man. Awake, you who sleep rise up from the dead and Christ will enlighten you. I tell you again: for your sake, God became man.

You would have suffered eternal death, had He not been born in time. Never would you have been freed from sinful flesh, had He not taken on Himself the likeness of sinful flesh. You would have suffered everlasting unhappiness, had it not been for this mercy. You would never have returned to life, had He not shared your death. You would have been lost if He had not hastened to your aid. You would have perished, had He not come.

Let us then joyfully celebrate the coming of our salvation and redemption. Let us celebrate the festive day on which He who is the great and eternal day came from the great and endless day of eternity into our own short day of time.

He who glories, let him glory, not in himself, but in the Lord. For this reason, when our Lord was born of the Virgin, the message of the angelic voices was: Glory to God in the highest, and peace to His people on earth.

Let us then rejoice in this grace, so that our glorying may bear witness to our good conscience by which we glory, not in ourselves, but in the Lord. That is why Scripture says: “He is my glory, the one who lifts up my head.” For what greater grace could God have made to dawn on us than to make His only Son become the son of man, so that a son of man might in His turn become Son of God?

Ask if this were merited; ask for its reason, for its justification, and see whether you will find any other answer but sheer grace.

Sincerely in Christ,

Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching