God taking on flesh and
becoming man is known as the Incarnation. The Second Person of the Trinity, the Son,
while remaining fully God, assumed a full human nature. He took on a true human body, intellect, and
will. He was like us in all things but
sin (Hebrews 4:15). Belief in the true
Incarnation of the Son of God is the distinctive sign of Christian faith. St. John begins his Gospel by proclaiming,
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God…. And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John
1:1,14). We also proclaim in the creed
at Mass, “For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven, and by the
Holy Spirit was incarnate of the
Virgin Mary, and became man.” So, the
creed tells us that God took on flesh and became man for us and out
salvation. But we can ask further, why the Incarnation? Why did God become man? Our tradition offers us at least four
answers.
First, the Word became flesh for us in order to save
us by reconciling us with God. Being born in original sin, and falling into
personal sin, our communion with God was radically ruptured. On its own, humanity was incapable of making
a return to God, since the offense of sin was so immense, against an infinitely
loving God. In his love, God became one
of us to make that return on our behalf, to restore communion between humanity
and God. Only God himself could have
offered the perfect act of love and sacrifice necessary, but only from man was
this act due. In the God-man, the one
person Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man, and can thus draw us back to
God.
