And of his fulness we all have received

Today, Saint Gregory Nazianzen speaks to us of the great remedy of the Incarnation. It is in the adorable mystery of the Most Holy Eucharist that the Incarnation reaches and touches every generation with an immediacy that is supremely efficacious. It is in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar that the Word incarnate, crucified, risen, and ascended into heaven “empties himself of his glory for a short while, that I may have a share in his fulness”.  He who descended from the bosom of the Father to hide Himself in the Virgin’s womb now descends from the throne of His glory to hide himself beneath the veil of the sacred species, and He who hides Himself upon the altar descends, even further, into the bosom of poor mortal sinners, giving to those who partake of His Body and Blood access to the riches of His Godhead and a share in His fulness. “And of his fulness we all have received, and grace for grace” (John 1:16).  Not for nothing do we read the Prologue of Saint John after having received Holy Communion, as a kind of seal placed upon the Holy Mysteries:

But as many as received him, he gave them power to be made the sons of God, to them that believe in his name. Who are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we saw his glory, the glory as it were of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. (John 1:12–14)

From a Homily by St Gregory Nazianzen, Bishop & Doctor

Man, having first been chastened by many means because his sins were many, whose root of evil sprang up through various causes and sundry times, by word, by law, by prophets, by benefits, by threats, by plagues, by waters, by fires, by wars, by victories, by defeats, by signs in heaven, and signs in the air, and in the earth, and in the sea; by unexpected changes of men, of cities, of nations (the object of which was the destruction of wickedness) at last he needed a stronger remedy, for his diseases were growing worse; mutual slaughters, adulteries, perjuries, unnatural crimes, and that first and last of all evils, idolatry, and the transfer of worship from the Creator to the creatures.

As these required a greater aid, so they also obtained a greater. And that was that the Word of God himself, who is before all worlds, the Invisible, the Incomprehensible, the Bodiless, the Beginning of beginning, the Light of Light, the Source of Life and Immortality, the Image of the Archetype, the Immovable Seal, the Unchangeable Image, the Father’s Definition and Word, came to his own Image, and took on him flesh for the sake of our flesh, and mingled himself with an intelligent soul for my soul’s sake, purifying like by like; and in all points except sin was made man; conceived by the Virgin, who first in body and soul was purified by the Holy Ghost, for it was needful both that Child-bearing should be honoured and that Virginity should receive a higher honour.

He came forth then, as God, with that which he had assumed; one Person in two natures, flesh and Spirit, of which the latter deified the former.  O new commingling; O strange conjunction!  The Self-existent comes into Being, the Uncreated is created, that which cannot be contained is contained by the intervention of an intellectual soul mediating between the Deity and the corporeity of the flesh.  And he who gives riches becomes poor; for he assumes the poverty of my flesh, that I may assume the riches of his Godhead.  He that is full empties himself; for he empties himself of his glory for a short while, that I may have a share in his fulness.  What are the riches of his goodness?  What is this mystery that is around me?  I had a share in the Image and I did not keep it; he partakes of my flesh that he may both save the Image and make the flesh immortal.  He communicates a second communion, far more marvellous than the first, inasmuch as then he imparted the better nature, but now he himself assumes the worse.  This is more godlike than the former action; this is loftier in the eyes of all men of understanding.