Why did God take on Human Nature?
The Christmas season is a beautiful time of the year for many reasons. Family gatherings, presents, and music along with the smells of Christmas trees, food, and incense at midnight Mass are just a few examples of the little things that make the season so special. Personally, I love seeing those bumper stickers that state, “Jesus is the reason for the season” Primarily because they hardly ever get taken off.
Yet, why is Jesus the reason for all this celebration? With most questions of mine, a turn towards Aquinas provides insight. The Angelic doctor says that of all the holy mysteries of the faith, there are two that are most central: The Trinity and the Incarnation. Today on Christmas day we celebrate the latter explicitly and the former implicitly, as the second person of the Trinity took on Human nature.
The idea of God coming in the flesh is one that has commonly been viewed as scandalous, impossible, and erroneous. How can divinity incorporate sinful humanity? How can that which is Spirit assume flesh? How can God lower himself to the level of a creature? All these thoughts only add to the marvel of the Incarnation’s reality, rather than call it into question as we know by faith that Jesus Christ is the Word made flesh.
Yet why would God do such a thing as become a man? Sometimes for answering grand questions such as these, I’ve found that there is hardly anything better than simply turning to the Catechism as it provides a clear and precise answer. Sidenote, I sincerely believe that the Catechism ought to be the “go to” stop for curious Catholics, before any online source!
The Catechism doesn’t only provide a reason why God took on human nature, but FOUR! They are found in paragraphs 467-460 and are as follows:
1.) The Word became flesh for us in order to save us by reconciling us with God, who "loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins": "the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world", and "he was revealed to take away sins":
Sick, our nature demanded to be healed; fallen, to be raised up; dead, to rise again. We had lost the possession of the good; it was necessary for it to be given back to us. Closed in the darkness, it was necessary to bring us the light; captives, we awaited a Savior; prisoners, help; slaves, a liberator. Are these things minor or insignificant? Did they not move God to descend to human nature and visit it, since humanity was in so miserable and unhappy a state? - St. Gregory of Nyssa
2.) The Word became flesh so that thus we might know God's love: "In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him." "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."
3.) The Word became flesh to be our model of holiness: "Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me." "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me." On the mountain of the Transfiguration, the Father commands: "Listen to him!" Jesus is the model for the Beatitudes and the norm of the new law: "Love one another as I have loved you." This love implies an effective offering of oneself, after his example.
4.) The Word became flesh to make us "partakers of the divine nature":"For this is why the Word became man, and the Son of God became the Son of man: so that man, by entering into communion with the Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God." "For the Son of God became man so that we might become God." "The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might make men gods."
So there it is! The reasons why God was Incarnated according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church. But, as this is the Aquinas institute, I’d be amiss in not mentioning Aquinas’ thoughts on the matter. In Question One of the third part of the Summa Theologica, Aquinas comments on the incarnation by stating that it was “fitting.” When Aquinas uses the term “fitting” what he means to do is explain why God chose to act in the way that he so did.
In the following, Aquinas proposes that God’s very nature is goodness. It logically follows from perfect goodness that one would have a desire to communicate and share itself with others. This could be done in no better way than assuming the nature of that to whom one desires to share with. He says:
To each things, that is befitting which belongs to it by reason of its very nature; thus, to reason befits man, since this belongs to him because he is of a rational nature. But the very nature of God is goodness, as is clear from Dionysius (Div. Nom. i). Hence, what belongs to the essence of goodness befits God. But it belongs to the essence of goodness to communicate itself to others, as is plain from Dionysius (Div. Nom. iv). Hence it belongs to the essence of the highest good to communicate itself in the highest manner to the creature, and this is brought about chiefly by "His so joining created nature to Himself that one Person is made up of these three—the Word, a soul and flesh," as Augustine says (De Trin. xiii). Hence it is manifest that it was fitting that God should become incarnate.
Merry Christmas from the Aquinas Institute!