A Universal Christ
Friday, December 26, 2025
Franciscan sister and scientist Ilia Delio focuses on the theology of the incarnation and the universal nature of the Christ mystery:
The Christian message is that God has become flesh [sarx in Greek or “matter”]—not a part of God or one aspect of God but the whole infinite, eternal God Creator has become matter. The claim—God has become flesh—is so radical that it is virtually unthinkable and illogical. Christianity is the most radical of all world religions because it takes matter seriously as the home of divinity. [1]
So does everyone have to become Christian to know the Christ? Absolutely not. Christ is more than Jesus. Christ is the communion of divine personal love expressed in every created form of reality—every star, leaf, bird, fish, tree, rabbit, and human person. Everything is christified because everything expresses divine love incarnate. However, Jesus Christ is the “thisness” of God, so what Jesus is by nature everything else is by grace (divine love). We are not God, but every single person is born out of the love of God, expresses this love in [their] unique personal form, and has the capacity to be united with God…. Because Jesus is the Christ, every human is already reconciled with every other human in the mystery of the divine, so that Christ is more than Jesus alone. Christ is the whole reality bound in a union of love.
We are transformed by experiencing the presence Christ in all things.
We cannot know this mystery of Christ as a doctrine or an idea; it is the root reality of all existence. Hence, we must travel inward, into the interior depth of the soul where the field of divine love is expressed in the “thisness” of our own, particular life. Each of us is a little word of the Word of God, a mini-incarnation of divine love. The journey inward requires surrender to this mystery in our lives, and this means letting go of our “control buttons.” It means dying to the untethered selves that occupy us daily; it means embracing the sufferings of our lives, from the little sufferings to the big ones; it means allowing God’s grace to heal us, hold us, and empower us for life; it means entering into darkness, the unknowns of our lives, and learning to trust the darkness, for the tenderness of divine love is already there; it means being willing to surrender all that we have for all that we can become in God’s love; and finally, it means to let God’s love heal us of the opposing tensions within us. When we can say with full voice, “You are the God of my heart, my God and my portion forever” [Psalm 73:26], then we can open our eyes to see that the God I seek is already in me … and in you. We are already One. [2]
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John Chaffee 5 On Friday
1.
“The central miracle asserted by Christians is the Incarnation. They say that God became Man. Every other miracle prepares for this, or exhibits this, or results from this.”
The Incarnation, the Infinite becoming Finite, is something that we cannot fully comprehend…
But we can apprehend it!
They say that you cannot pour the sea into a thimble, but you can pour through a thimble into the sea.
Well, the Christmas story subverts that by saying that the sea can be poured into a thimble and that we then catch all of the overflow.
2.
“It is good to be children sometimes, and never better than Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child Himself.”
– Charles Dickens, English Novelist
Kids are great.
You know what? I would love to read a book about Charles Dickens’ magnum opus, A Christmas Carol. I would bet there were plenty of influences that converged to help him write that story.
What was his religious upbringing? How did he think about the rich and the poor? How were children valued in his personal life? What did he believe about spirits or angels/messengers?
I cannot imagine writing a piece that would eventually become almost synonymous with the Christmas story.
3.
“To work for a just world where there is not servitude, oppression, or alienation is to work for the advent of the Messiah.”
– Gustavo Gutierrez, Peruvian Priest and Theologian
I admit that I have not read much of Gustavo Gutierrez; however, he has shaped much of my thinking.
Gutierrez was important because he wrote some of the most influential works on liberation theology, which brought to the forefront the idea that God cares about the poor, the oppressed, the downtrodden, and those at the bottom of society.
In some ways, his theological conservativism led him to be more “progressive” in his political values. While working as a priest in Peru, his own Catholicism led him to side with the country’s poor, which angered many who wanted him to uphold conventional religious wisdom and not ruffle feathers.
4.
“God became man that man might become God.”
– St. Athanasius of Alexandria, 4th Century Church Father
This is known as theosis, the process of becoming gods.
This may sound revolutionary or potentially even heretical, but it was a central doctrine of the early church. In fact, when the Pharisees are interrogating Jesus, he even quotes Psalms, as it calls all human beings “gods.”
Some early church theologians believe that Adam and Eve were always supposed to become like God;QA the problem is that they chose to achieve it through their own means instead. As a result, God had to intervene and provide a way for us to become like God on God’s terms.
In Western Christianity, this idea is nearly non-existent. This is, in part, due to our overemphasis on sin and forgiveness as the culmination of the Gospel; however, forgiveness occurs along the way to restoration and theosis.
If you are interested in how the early church taught about becoming like God on God’s terms, I invite you to read more of Athanasius or to examine some of the core teachings of Eastern Orthodoxy, which preserved this doctrine better than the West did.
Specifically, check out the work of Sergius Bulgakov.
5.
“It is Christmas every time you let God love others through you.”
– Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Albanian Catholic Nun
At best, we are either working with or against the flow of the Love of God in the world.
This quote made me think of a video I made 5 years ago when we were all in the thick of Covid and I was just starting to make videos from my apartment. I hope you enjoy it!
