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Nouwen on the Mystery of the Incarnation

I've been reading Henri Nouwen's


Lifesigns this Advent. Here is a wonderful passage on the incarnation:
Words for "home" are often used in the Old and New Testaments. The Psalms are filled with a yearning to dwell in the house of God, to take refuge under God's winds, and to find protection in God's holy temple; they praise God's holy place, God's wonderful tent, God's firm refuge. We might even say that "to dwell in God's house" summarizes all the aspirations expresssed in these inspired prayers. It is there fore highly significant that St. John describes Jesus as the Word of God pitiching his tent among us (John1:14). He not only tells us that Jesus invites him and his brother Andrew to stay at his home (John 1:38-39) but he also shows how Jesus gradually reveals that he himself is the new temple (John 2:19) and the new refuge (Matthew 11:28). This is most fully expressed in the farewell address, where Jesus reveals himself as the new home: "Make your home in me, as I make mine in you" (John 15:4). Jesus, in whom the fullness of God dwells, has become our home. By making his home in us he allows us to make our home in him. By entering into the intimacy of our innermost self he offers us the opportunity to enter into his own intimacy with God. By choosing us as his preferred dwelling place he invites us to choose him as our preferrred dwelling place. This is the mystery of the incarnation... ....Conversion, then, means coming home, and prayer is seeking our home where the Lord has built a home--in the intimacy of our own hearts. Prayer is the most concrete way to make our home in God.

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