The First Day of the Incarnation of the Son of God
Today is your day our Lord and God.
It is the day that has no end
It has its beginning in your divine and eternal plan.
Blessed be the One who took off his glory to reveal his love.
When you formed Adam
You saw your future love.
When Adam trespassed,
Your compassion moved you to declare your plan.
Blessed be the One who took off his glory to reveal his love.
Not one single creature ever considered that you will be what you are not when you became a human.
You are with us as our Creator
Today you are in us because of your Incarnation.
You took what you are not
Indeed Lord you took what is ours after it failed,
after it lost its glory.
Blessed be the One who took off his glory to reveal his love.
Your love, Lord, is your very nature.
It is not a bare nature.
It is not an attribute.
It is the hypostases of the Three,
Where love is ever was and ever shall be.
Love and lover and beloved,
Each of the Three takes his turn to be love, beloved and lover.
Blessed be the One who took off his glory to reveal his love.
This is not a riddle that needs wise men.
It is above all forms of wisdom;
It is what wisdom cannot perceive.
Wisdom looks for reasons and beginnings and ends,
Love works for no reason to give.
Why are we created,
Wisdom seeks but love accepts.
When love can answer,
Wisdom listens and wonders.
You have created me so that I may dialogue with you.
You have created me so that your love overflows to our emptiness.
You have created me so that you may rest in what is totally different from you.
We are the other side of you,
Not a shadow but a different reality.
We are not your mirror;
You do not see yourself in us but us in you.
Blessed be the One who took off his glory to reveal his love.
Triune love has its beginning.
The Father is the fountain;
He has the end of all in him.
The Spirit completes all,
The Son is in the middle.
He takes from the fountain,
Gives to the Spirit,
We receive.
Blessed be the One who took off his glory to reveal his love.
Today is your day.
The day where all the powers of heaven
Were protected from that illness.
That ugly one Lucifer who loved God’s power
Introduced pride to heavenly ranks.
It came from his love,
But it was love without wisdom.
It was love of power,
Love to be like God without.
Blessed be the One who took off his glory to reveal his love.
One third of the powers followed him;
They all fell into darkness—
That darkness where there is light,
But only for those who love light.
In God, says that apostle, “there is no darkness,”
But with pride comes blindness.
Light cannot be received
Blessed be the One who took off his glory to reveal his love.
What is light, it is love.
What is love, it is life.
What is life, it is God.
Do not ask what is God.
This was a question that Lucifer tried to answer.
He saw power before love;
He loved what he saw.
He did not share his vision,
For if he did, God would have told him
That he does not covet anything because he is good.
Blessed be the One who took off his glory to reveal his love.
Today, Lord, you established those who choose light.
You made your abode in the womb of Mary.
What a confusion has taken place in heaven,
When all looked at your throne and saw it empty.
There was the Father and the Holy Spirit;
Where is the Logos, the Choir-Master of the heavenly powers?
He is not on his throne;
He cannot be seen on earth,
His light still fills all.
Becoming unknown seems strange,
Where is he now?
Blessed be the One who took off his glory to reveal his love.
The Father and the Holy Spirit pointed to earth.
There no one can see
The glory that is hidden;
Love put it aside.
Infinity is not the lack of quantity,
It is not a material quality,
It is love and power and glory—
Not like anything that we know.
It is measured negatively to avoid idolatry.
Infinity is God, and it is him alone.
Blessed be the One who took off his glory to reveal his love.
Infinite love is that one which cannot be stopped.
Infinite glory is that which can give and does not diminish.
Infinite power is that which can create all and preserve all.
There was the infinite Logos jammed in the womb.
He took his abode in the most little dwelling place;
There death has its seed side by side with life,
For all women give birth to the grave.
When Life came to Mary on that day,
When the infinite dwelled in her womb,
The heavenly powers were established in humility.
Rebellion like that of Lucifer cannot take place again.
Heaven never has known such a humility.
God has united himself with a creature;
God has established on that day humility forever.
Blessed be the One who took off his glory to reveal his love.
Come, let us see how his glory is hidden
Under that little flesh.
How can the Son reveal himself?
It is his invisibility that protects us from sin.
Making an idol of the visible freezes our love.
Worshiping what we see reduces communion.
Our nature which came out of nothing
Cannot preserve except by example.
Our faculties need transformation
To lift us up and to complete our creation.
The Gospel calls this re-creation.
He became like us to fix in a new way our new boundaries.
He hides his glory till we mature enough;
He hides his glory by his love,
For his love is so glorious
That he hides it to make communion possible.
Blessed be the One who took off his glory to reveal his love.
The angels saw him not before in that form.
They worshiped him before that wonderful day.
Now they asked, “Who is this son of man?
How can we worship him?
We see in him what we have not seen before—
Love and humility which are alien to humans.”
The Holy Spirit inspired them.
They fell down and worshiped him.
They all sang to Jesus’ love.
Today is the day on which all forms of separation came to an end.
God is in us because our humanity is united in him
God is with us because our form is his forever
Blessed be the One who took off his glory to reveal his love.
The Mystery of his love is beyond definitions.
O Lord, open my lips that I may speak.
Grant me that wisdom which is from above.
My tongue is crippled by my words.
Our thoughts are earthly and a fruit of dust;
Without your grace, only earthly praise can we give.
Today you are with us and in us and for us.
Blessed be your incarnation which re-established the new creation!
Ephrem the Syrian
Ephrem the Syrian (ca. 306-373) was from the region of Turkey/Syria. He was a deacon, theologian, and prolific writer of hymns in the Syriac language. Ephrem wrote a wide variety of hymns, poems, and sermons in verse, as well as prose biblical exegesis. These were works of practical theology for the edification of the church in troubled times. He is considered one of the best examples of a Christianity that existed with very few ideas from the West. Ephrem has also been called the most significant of all the fathers in the Syriac-speaking church tradition.