During the last week of Advent, the Church guides us to meditate on the mystery of the Incarnation, but what is the Incarnation itself? As the apostle Saint John says in the preface of his gospel: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us…” (John 1:1,14) The incarnation means that the second Person of the Trinity, the eternal Son of God became flesh, in other words, he assumed a nature additional to the divine, a human nature.
But this miracle would not be possible without the acceptance of Mary, the human vehicle through which Jesus Christ became incarnate and dwelt among us, the one through whom we were created (John 1:3) wanted to be part of human nature and was the Holy Spirit was incarnate of a virgin as Isaiah had prophesied (Isaiah 7:14), Jesus Christ is born, God and man at the same time. Faced with the angel Gabriel’s announcement that she would be the mother of the promised Messiah, Mary humbly accepts by saying: “I am the Lord’s servant. May your word to me be fulfilled.” (Luke 1:34-38)
The incarnation is also necessary for the redemption of sins, it was necessary for Jesus Christ to take human form, since it was necessary for him to be born under the law (Galatians 4:4-5), to fulfill the law in our favor (Matthew 5:17). It was also necessary that our Savior shed his blood for the forgiveness of sins (Hebrews 9:22), since without a body of flesh and blood there can be no blood sacrifice. Without the Incarnation, our Lord Jesus Christ could not really die, and the cross would have no meaning.
Let us participate in the great banquet that our Lord Jesus Christ has prepared for us, since it is through his sacrifice of his flesh and blood that we were redeemed from sin, flesh and blood that are present in the consecrated bread and wine.