Preliminary QuestionsBibliographyTen Finger History | TheologyThe Franciscan School and the Incarnation | Date of ChristmasSymbolsTo Think About |
Which is your favorite feast, Easter or Christmas? How is Christmas different for you now that you are an adult from your recollections of Christmas when you were a child? Do you enjoy all the gift giving, card sending, tree decorating, etc of Christmas or does it just seem like "a too busy" time?
Code of Canon Law. Book IV, Part III, Title II: Sacred Times (cc 1244-1253). CLSA Commentary, pp 853-855.
Murray Bodo. Francis: The Journey and the Dream. "Christmas at Greccio" p 95.
Adrian Nocent. The Liturgical Year. Collegeville: The Liturgical Press, 1977. Vol. 1 Advent, Christmas, Epiphany.
Biblical Archaeology Review has published on-line an article dealing with the major theories of setting the date for Christmas. There is an interesting discussion of the problems with the claim of Christmas replacing a pagan antecedent, including when that claim was first made. There is also a good description of the academically better accepted explanation of the date of Christmas being determined by the date calculated [however incorrectly] for the death of Jesus of Nazareth.
1. Apostolic [0-399]
2. Patristic [400-799]
3. Early Medieval [800-1199]
4. Medieval [1200-1299]
5. Late Medieval [1300-1499]
6. Reformation [1500-1699]
7. After Trent [1700-1899]
8. Before Vatican II [1900-1959]
9. Vatican II [1960-1975]
10. After Vatican II [1975-2050]
Incarnational Theology: God became a real human being; Incarnational religion; a regard for this earth and its real people and real problems; (real bread and real wine).
The Incarnation Intended before All Time
Without a doubt, the most profound and perfect self-revelation of God took place in the Incarnation. God, the divine artist, conceived of the best way in which the fullness of divine glory could be shared. Like a diligent artist who envisions a gorgeous landscape and who then begins to execute the design [plan = mysterion = mystery = sacrament] by creating the background that will support the whole of the work, so too, before the beginning of time, Scotus contends, God freely planned the Incarnation. Simply stated, according to Scotus, the reason for the Incarnation in the first place was God's free and eternal decision to have, outside God's own self, someone who could love God perfectly. Through the humanity of Jesus, God expressed the absolutely free divine desire to communicate divine love in a contingent and finite world.
And so it was that the world was created through the Word (Jn 1:1-18). Humans were created having the capacity to respond freely to divine initiative and capable of entering into a personal relationship with God and with one another. As Scotus sees it, humans were not only created in the image and likeness of God, (imago Dei) they were also created in the image of the incarnate Son (imago Christi). Just as Bonaventure taught, Scotus also sees Christ as the pattern after which all creation is fashioned. Like the Seraphic Doctor [Bonaventure], the Subtle Doctor [Scotus] holds that progress in the spiritual life is a process of christification as well as deification; the more Christ-like one becomes, the more God-like one is. Indeed, human union with God is mediated through the Incarnation.
Scotus joins a long line of Franciscan scholars in maintaining that the Word would have become incarnate even if Adam had not sinned. Adam's sin was not the sine qua non (the absolute and only cause) for the Incarnation. In Scotus's view, the Incarnation was not necessitated by the human choice to sin, for that would be effectivelyyou subjected God (who is absolutely free) to permission of sin. Also, if the Incarnation had been the result of sin, humans would have reason, contrary to charity, to rejoice at the sinfulness of others."
Rather, the Incarnation represents the manifestation of God's eternal glory and God's intent to raise human nature to the highest point of glory by uniting it with the divine nature. Understood in this way, the Incarnation is a paradigm for divine-human mutuality.
Mutuality between God and humanity was foreseen from eternity, begun in the Incarnation and is to be fully realized in the future when Christ will be "all in all." The summit of creation is the communion of all persons with one another and with God ... Christ is the very person in whom the human and divine achieve mutuality.
Christ embodies the divine message that human actions are pleasing to God, human persons are pleasing to God and humans are loved by God. The fact that, according to Scotus, God's freedom and liberality inspired the Incarnation provides a positive enhancement of human nature that is not possible in a sin-centric understanding of the doctrine. God, in Scotus's view, is a creative artist who selected human nature as the "material" most fitting to receive the highest glory of subsisting in the person of the Word. This divine message provides the basis for Scotus's understanding of divine acceptatio and the order of merit. (Dawn M. Nothwehr, O.S.F., The Franciscan View of the Human Person: Some Central Elements. The Franciscan Heritage Series, Volume Three. Franciscan Institute, 2005. Pp 53-54)
Christ: The Blueprint of Creation
Scotus maintains that God became human in Jesus out of love (rather than because of human sin) because God wanted to express God's self in a creature who would be a masterpiece and who would love God perfectly in return. This is Scotus's doctrine of the primacy of Christ. Christ is the first in God's intention to love. Creation is not an independent act of divine love that was, incidentally, followed up by divine self-revelation in the covenant. Rather, the divine desire to become incarnate was part of the overall plan in the order of intention.
Scotus places the Incarnation within the context of creation and not within the context of human sin. Christ, therefore, is the masterpiece of love, the "summum opus Dei." The idea that all of creation is made for Christ means that for Christ to come about there had to be a creation,and, in this creation, there had to be beings capable of understand and freely responding to divine initiative. Creation was only a prelude to a much fuller manifestation of divine goodness, namely, the Incarnation.
Whereas Thomas Aquinas emphasized the material and formal causes in creation, Scotus emphasized the final cause as determining the work of the Artist. Everything in creation is related to finality expressed in Christ, and this final goal is impressed on everything in between. Christ is the meaning and model of creation and every creature made in the image of Christ. Because creation is centered on Incarnation, every leaf, cloud, fruit, animal and person is an outward expression of the Word of God in love. When Jesus comes as the Incarnation of God, there is a "perfect fit" because everything has been made to resemble Jesus Christ. This means that sun, moon, trees, animals, stories, all have life only in Christ, through Christ and with Christ, for Christ is the word through whom all things are made (cf Jn 1:1). (Ilia Delio, O.S.F. A Franciscan View of Creation: Learning to Live in a Sacramental World. The Franciscan Heritage Series, Volume 2. Franciscan Institute. 2003 p 54)
If we believe that God is three-in-one, what does it mean to be "made in God's image"? If we recognize that the social nature of God is foundational to our own quest for happiness, what structures can we create so as to anticipate this celestial economy of exchange in via? If we are to practice what we believe, how can we recommit ourselves to the creation of loving ecclesial relationships, to the treasuring of the revelation of God's relational being in all of creation. Trinitarian Perspectives, Maria Calisi, pg. 8.
A "substance" may be defined as "a thing in itself." A "person" may be defined as "one toward another." Trinitarian Perspectives, Maria Calisi, pg. 20
In Bonaventure's theology God is perfect, infinite, eternal, and absolute goodness. Since the good is by nature self-diffusive, God by nature must diffuse Godself in a perfect, infinite, eternal, and absolute way. Just as Thomas held that God's essence is existence itself, Bonaventure holds that God's essence is goodness itself. Therefore, God's essential goodness is the wellspring for the Second Person who is Son, Word, and Image. "Father" is a relational term, which indicates that one person comes forth from another. The Father begets the Son because God is love, and interpersonal relationship is necessary for the perfection of God. God generates the Logos because God must express the divine ideas, and the Word is the fullest expression of Godself. God produces the Image because the image reflects all that the Father infinitely is, and returns the Father's love as only an infinite person can. This reciprocated love is the Holy Spirit acting as the gift and the bond between them. Trinitarian Perspectives, Maria Calisi, pg.32
For since the Father brings forth the Son, and through the Son, and together with the Son brings forth the Holy Spirit, God the Father through the Son and with the Holy Spirit is the principle of everything created; for if he did not produce them eternally, he could not produce anything in time; and therefore he is rightly called the "Font of Life."... Therefore it follows that eternal life consists in this alone, that the rational spirit , which emanates from the most blessed trinity and is a likeness of the Trinity, should return after the manner of a certain intelligible circle through its memory, intelligence, and will to the most blessed Trinity by God-conforming glory. Trinitarian Perspectives, Maria Calisi, pg. 38
He [Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the first born of creation; for in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invincible...all things were created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together (Col 1:15-17).Trinitarian Perspectives, Maria Calisi, pg. 41.
Circumincession corresponds to the Greek word perichoresis which originated with John of Damascus. Perichoresis refers to the mutual indwelling of the Trinitarian Persons, as revealed by Christ's words, "I am in the Father and the Father is in me" The persons of the Trinity abide in each other eternally. Trinitarian Perspectives, Maria Calisi, pg. 56.
1. Human beings are created in the image and likeness of God. This is not some quaint, biblical cliché; this is at the heart of our theological anthropology. We image God in our capacity to know and to love. We reflect the tri-Personal God most clearly in generous and self-transcending relationships. Trinitarian Perspectives, Maria Calisi, pg. 59.
The Bonaventurian understanding of the Trinity is of incalculable worth as a model for human interpersonal relations, because it offers us values that are indispensable to authentic human community; equality and non-subordination, reciprocity, interdependence, inclusivity, generosity, mutual self-donation, and dynamic productivity. Such a view of human community has implications for how our institutions and sharing of goods reflect our core belief in the Trinity. Trinitarian Perspectives, Maria Calisi, pg. 60.
The Sacramentary gives a proper Preface to each of the Sundays of Lent (Cycle A). In the same literary genre, compose prefaces for the Masses of Christmas and Epiphany. Compare yours with those in the Sacramentary.
In colleges and universities in the United States, the students often go home for Christmas vacation towards the end of the Advent season. Christmas Masses are celebrated before the students leave for vacation. Comment on this practice and give a pastoral solution to the problem.
"The seasons of the natural year happen by themselves; the seasons of the Church Year must be caused to happen." In the change of our devotional piety following the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council, many of the things which caused a liturgical season to happen have been lost. State several ways (family customs, devotional practices, etc.) which can cause Advent to "happen" in the contemporary parish.
State the differences in the celebration of Epiphany in the East and West.
Copyright: Tom Richstatter. All Rights Reserved. This page was created by Fr. Thomas Richstatter, O.F.M. Every effort has been, and is being made to acknowledge sources when the ideas are not my own. Any failure to comply with the United States Copyright Act (Title 17, United States Code) will be corrected immediately should I become aware of it. This site was updated on 12/10/11 . Your comments on this site are welcome at trichstatter@franciscan.org