WE PREPARE TO WITNESS A MYSTERY. More to the point, we prepare to witness The Mystery, the God made flesh. While it is good that we seek to know the Holy One, it is probably not so good to presume that we ever complete the task, to suppose that we ever know anything about him except what he has made known to us. The prophet Isaiah helps us to remember our limitations when he writes, “To whom then will you compare me . . .? Says the Holy One.”
As you probably already know all theology—all God talk—comes in one of two particular flavors; let’s call them the way of attributes and the way of negations. The former includes all our propositions of God’s qualities. The latter provides their necessary qualification; it is the tradition that reminds us that if God is, say, compassionate, he is not; even so, compassionate in the way a man is compassionate—thank God.
Isaiah’s discovery that God is beyond compare reveals what may seem a disturbing truth: God is, finally, unknowable. Still, while he is not to be absolutely known, he is apparently willing to reveal something of himself to us at nearly every turn. Think of it like this: he cannot be exhausted by our ideas about him, but he is everywhere suggested.
He cannot be comprehended, but he can be touched.
His coming in the flesh—this Mystery we prepare to glimpse again— confirms that he is to be touched.
By his prophets, and by his Word, and by his Holy Spirit, the Father reveals that earthly nature itself—our persons and their surrounding creation—cannot help speaking of the One Who Made Them. “Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name.”
In so doing, the Holy One reveals something of his purpose as well.
“He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” His taking flesh gives flesh itself a strength and life it did not have before.
Saint Paul tells us that one day he “shall know even as [he] is known.” Perhaps he shall. Perhaps we shall. Regardless, in the meantime, we can know what has been revealed: the Holy One has seen fit to adopt our frailty, so that we might partake in his strength. “Come unto me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”
Even his burden is unlike any burden we have known—”For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light”—for it becomes the Light of the World.
~From Scott Cairns, “Second Wednesday of Advent,” GOD WITH US: Rediscovering the Meaning of Christmas, edited by Greg Pennoyer & Gregory Wolfe
