Gaining the Riches of Divinity [Awakening Faith]
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)
The very Son of God, older than the ages, the invisible, the incomprehensible, the incorporeal, the beginning of beginning, the light of light, the fountain of life and immortality, the image of the archetype, the immovable seal, the perfect likeness, the definition and Word of the Father: he is the one who comes to us, his own image, and takes our nature for the good of our nature and unites himself to an intelligent soul for the good of his soul, to purify man by manhood. He takes to himself all that is human, except for sin. He was conceived by the Virgin Mary, whose body and soul were prepared by the Spirit; his birth had to be treated with honor, and virginity received a new honor.
He comes to us as God, in the human nature he has taken: one being, made of two contrary elements, flesh and spirit. Spirit gave divinity, and flesh received it. He who makes rich is made poor; he takes on the poverty of my flesh, that I may gain the riches of his divinity. He who is full is made empty; he is emptied of his glory for a brief time, that I may share in his fullness.
Can you understand the wealth of his goodness? What is this mystery that surrounds me? I received the likeness of God but failed to preserve it. He takes on my flesh to bring salvation to the image, immortality to the flesh. He enters into a second union with us, a union far more wonderful than the first.
Gregory of Nazianzus
Awakening Faith: Daily Devotionals from the Early Church
by James Stuart Bell and Patrick J. Kelly
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