TOTUS TUUS MARIA !
"And the Word became Flesh, and has dwelt among us"
WHY DID JESUS INCARNATE?
God had created man perfectly holy. However, the first human souls (Adam and Eve) already committed the sin of pride and disobedience towards their Creator. This was the birth of sin. This event is referred to as the Fall of man: the human soul lost her perfect sanctity, and this stain was transferred from generation to generation like a contamination. This first sin is called the original sin. It was the origin of man’s being denied the access to Heaven (Eternal Life in bliss for the soul that 'passes away' in a state of grace).
Through the prophets of the Old Covenant God promised mankind its Redemption: an unimaginable act of expiation through which God would again be able to reconcile with mankind, and Heaven would again be opened. As a great symbol of this reconciliation between God and man God sent His own Divine Son Jesus Christ into the world. However, Jesus had to accomplish Redemption as a Man, not as God, because reconciliation was only possible through expiatory human sufferings in a human body. We must consider this to be a compensation for the major injustice God’s goodness and Love had suffered on account of the countless and incredible sins. Suffering is disagreeable on a worldly level, but it is a source of outstanding merits on the supernatural level.
God could have made His Son appear as an adult human being, yet in order to make the sacrifice perfect, He made Him go through every stage of human nature: Jesus had to be born a helpless child, of a woman. No woman, however, would have been worthy to bear God’s Son, for every human being was a bearer of the original sin... except for MARY, who was the only one to be privileged by God to possess a perfectly holy soul, free from the original sin. This unique phenomenon is referred to as the Immaculate Conception. Through Mary’s Immaculate Conception God had rung in His reconciliation with mankind by the Coming of His Son into the world: Mary was the first one to be delivered from the stain of the original sin. She was the perfect holy woman, the human being like God had intended human beings: perfectly pure, and free from any sinful tendencies.
Before the Fall of man there was no suffering, no disease, no pain. Through the original sin the human body became an instrument of expiation for the sins of all mankind. In God’s eyes all human beings of all times constitute one single whole. This is exactly why it is possible that a human being expiates sins of other human beings through his own physical, mental and emotional sufferings. This explains why Jesus was able to take upon Himself the Redemption of all mankind.
The coming of the Messiah was already announced to the prophets of the Old Covenant. The Messiah, also called Christ, was God’s Anointed One who was to bring eternal Salvation to mankind. The Messiah was God’s only Son. The promise of the coming of the Messiah on earth was made to God’s 'Chosen People', the Jews of Israel. Therefore the Jews knew that the Christ was to rise from their own people. The Messiah did come: Jesus Christ, born of a very holy branch of the line of King David. Yet many did not recognize Him as the long expected Saviour. They saw in Jesus of Nazareth a new prophet, but nothing more. Some enlightened souls did recognize Jesus as the Messiah, and so Israel was divided between two parties: on the one hand those who recognized Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah (these people became the first Christians), and on the other hand those who refused to recognize Him as the Messiah. The latter remained Jews. In our days the Jews are still waiting for the 'Messiah', for they do not accept that the only true Messiah, the only Christ, has already come with Jesus of Nazareth.
The narrow-minded Jews who would not see the Messiah in Jesus, saw in Him a threat: to them He was a man who had come to disrupt Judaism, the old tradition passed on to the 'Chosen People' by God Himself. The most adamant among them, the Pharisees and the scribes, judged that Jesus, the 'prophet from Nazareth', had to be put away. In their eyes He was a blasphemer, who was so conceited that He dared renew God’s Law, and who, 'in a blasphemous way', called Himself Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God. The persecution began, and grew worse and worse, until Jesus was eventually taken prisoner. The prophets of the Old Covenant has announced that the Messiah would suffer and die for the salvation of His people. This prophecy was fulfilled: On the night of Holy Thursday, after terrible sufferings in heart and soul, Jesus was taken prisoner in the Garden of Gethsemani, and died on the Cross on Mount Calvary on Good Friday. At the foot of the Cross stood His Mother Mary, in unfathomable sufferings of heart and soul. This is where She became our Co-Redemptrix. During those hours from Gethsemani to Calvary, through indescribable pains and total exhaustion, Jesus expiated the sins of every human soul that believes that He is the Redeemer, and that truly believes in eternal salvation, eternal Life, and truly longs for it. Jesus opened Heaven. In order to actually enter Heaven, man only needs to show Jesus the Redeemer and Mary the Coredemptrix love and gratitude, and must show herself prepared to accept her own sufferings for the expiation of sins which was started by Jesus, and to continue this expiation for the salvation of all mankind.
Next to creation itself, the Incarnation of Jesus is the greatest gift of Love God ever gave to mankind. As an answer to the first human sin, the sin of pride, God’s Son came on earth to humiliate Himself by living a life as a man, subjected to the heaviest hardship, lovelessness, sufferings and a terrible death, as a ransom for the human souls of all the ages. He brought upon Himself Divine Justice in order to hold out the prospect of eternal bliss to every soul that believes He incarnated to deliver her from bondage towards the evil which tries to keep her away from perfect Heavenly Love for all eternity.
Praised be Jesus Christ - Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary,
be my Salvation, I am completely Yours for all eternity!
Myriam, January 2002