9781644135945

The Light of the World
“He hath bestowed upon us His divinity.” God would owe us nothing at all even if we should
place all that we have at His disposal. All God’s actions are directed by divine wisdom, and if
He chose to assume our nature, He must have done so for a worthy purpose. His purpose was
to enable us to share in His divine nature and to enjoy His divine life. What a marvelous exchange!
In exchange for the human nature which He borrows from us, He gives us the privilege
of participating in His divine nature.
In the child in the crib dwells the fullness of divinity: “For in Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead corporeally” (Col 2:9). “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men” ( Jn
1:4). O wondrous exchange! We possess the divine life when we possess sanctifying grace. We
share His life when we practice His virtues, that is, when we express our love for the Father and
for our fellow men, and when we practice obedience, purity, and humility.
Man is but dust and ashes (Gn 18:27). He is subject to vanity (Rom 8:20) and is “bent
upon evil at all times” (Gn 6:5); yet to him it is given to participate in the life of the divinity.
His sins are destroyed, and he is clothed with the splendor and beauty of the divinity. The
life which the Son derives from the Father and imparts to His own assumed humanity, is
imparted in turn to His fellow men. Christ is the vine, and His life is imparted to us, who are
the branches. “I am the vine, you the branches; he that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same
beareth much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing” ( Jn 15:5).
With this incorporation into the life of Christ, we are lifted above the needs and interests of the
life we once led; we are given a new insight and a new knowledge, and our will is constrained to
strive toward a higher ideal. “And I live, now not I, but Christ liveth in me” (Gal 2:20). This new
ideal governs my thoughts, my motives, and every phase of my life. It consecrates me and my
service to the things that pertain to the sacred vine of which I am a living branch. O wondrous
exchange! We give God our miserable human nature and receive in turn a participation in His
divine nature and divine life. This is the lesson we learn as we kneel devoutly at the crib and
contemplate the great mystery of Christmas.
Therefore, dear brethren, let us render thanks to God the Father through His Son, in the
Holy Spirit; who, because of His great love with which He hath loved us, has had mercy on us
and, when we were dead in our sins, has given us life in Christ, that in Him we might be a new
creature, a new image. Let us, then, put off the old man with all his works, and now that we
participate in the regeneration of Christ, let us renounce the works of the flesh. Recognize, O
Christian, thy own dignity; and having been made a partaker of the divine nature, return not
to the vile state in which you once lived. Remember of whose body and whose head you are
a member. Remember that you have been snatched from the power of the prince of darkness
and have been made to share in the light and kingdom of Christ. 5
As Christ lives a twofold life, so also does the Church and each soul that is baptized. The
divine element dominates the life of Christ; so, too, it must be the ruling element in our lives.
Everything that pertains to our natural life should now be directed to the proper supernatural
end. Confidence in God should bear us up in time of trial; love should be the motive of all our
works; resignation should temper our trials; and purity should mark us as the children of God.
The most insignificant action performed with this supernatural attitude is of much greater value
than all the knowledge, talent, honor, and success that we obtain in the merely natural order.
5
Sermon of St. Leo; lesson at Matins of Christmas.
86