The Day God Appeared In Human Form
Reading the title of this column makes one think immediately of the birth of the Baby Jesus on Christmas night in the stable of the little town of Bethlehem some 2,000 years ago. Christian tradition makes one always imagine many and varied aspects of the word ‘form’. They are the baby’s face, head, eyes, ears, lips, mouth, hands, feet, and their shape, color, and texture. All these are shown to have proportion, harmony and integrity which make the Baby’s form beautiful. We owe to Christian artists the many beautiful representations of the beginning of the Christ-event in history.
The real beauty, though, of the Christ-form, is not in these physical, outer, visible, and tangible aspects of the Baby’s external appearance. The inner form is the primary element of true beauty. From within It radiates out into the outer aspects that are visible to the eyes. Hence beauty is not in the eyes of the beholder. It is objectified; it is outside of the beholder. Yet this beauty has two elements – the inner and the outer, the manifested and the hidden; they are inseparable. They cannot be dissected as some materialist scientists do. Those who dissect Christ and His gospel probably do not know Him at all.
God is a Spirit, one, indivisible, invisible, spaceless, and timeless. He/She took a human form. In this mysterious process, which the Church calls Incarnation, God dignified humanity. We celebrate the Day this Form became visible in the birth of Jesus, the Son of Mary. This is Christmas Day! Hence we are blessed and are filled with joy because by grace we can become Christ-like and Christ-bringers, truly beautiful like Him. The most important question in Christian formation is, how to be beautiful by becoming a person of proportion, harmony and integrity in our character.
A Blessed, Joyful and Beautiful Christmas to all !
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