_ T s ^ t t h THE 
CATHOLIC 

HOUR 

1 1" 
AND THE WORD WAS MADE FLESH 

BY 

REV. EUGENE BURKE, C.S.P. 
A talk entitled "And The Word Was Made Flesh" delivered on the Catholic Hour on December 26, 1954 by Rev. Eugene Burke, C.S.P., produced by the National Council of Catholic Men in cooperation with the National Broadcasting Company. This is the last in a series of four talks entitled "In His Likeness." YOUR generous contributions, no matter how small, make THE CATHOLIC HOUR broadcasts possible. 

National Council of Catholic Men 1312 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W. Washington 5, D. C. 



A N D THE W O R D W A S M A D E FLESH 
My Dear Friends: 

Perhaps the warmest and 
loveliest expressions of the 
Christian tradition are to be 
found in the celebration of the 
Christmas season. Every land 
that has been touched at all by 
Christianity has given a rich 
setting to the incidents that 
surround the birth of Christ. 
Melodies and songs have flow-
ed from this celebration which 
are capable of evoking a whole 
series of rich human responses 
to all that the Babe of Bethle-
hem, has come to represent. 
Century-old customs and prac-
tices have grown up which are 
expressive of some of the deep-
est, tenderest of all our Chris-
tian values. Each of us has a 
whole treasure-house of me-
mories of this season that have 
served to enrich and even en-
oble our lives. From childhood 
to maturity these memories 
bind us to those we love and 
those whose affection we have 
shared. Into it all has been in-
terwoven the ideals of peace 
and good will and the oneness 
of the human family and not 
even the loss of belief or the 
rankest commercialism have 
been able to destroy these Chris-
tian realities. 

And yet, at first glance, there 
would seem to be but little pro-
portion and correspondence be-
tween the actual event and the 
enormous impact that it has had 
for centuries on the lives and 
hearts and minds of men. An 

infant born in far off Judea of 
a simple and unknown Jewish 
maiden. A nativity stripped of 
every comfort and convenience. 
A stable its scene because there 
is no room in the inn. A tidings 
announced only to a few shep-
herds on the Judean plains. Yet 
these are the very incidents that 
in art and poetry, in song and 
music have captured our ima-
gination and become the loveli-
est and most vital parts of our 
spiritual tradition and heritage. 
And a stranger to historical 
Christianity might very well 
ask why. 

And the answer I should say 
is that underlying all this warm 
Christmas tradition is the rec-
ognition that here in the flesh 
is expressed the very heart of 
the Christian vision of man and 
man's purposes. The words we 
use, the customs we follow all 
spring from the fact that here 
at Bethlehem we believe is vis-
ible a new beginning in the his-
tory of humanity. For to the be-
lieving Christian, the birth of 
Christ is the great moment of 
man's history and he stands in 
awe and joy before it knowing 
that here is the summit of 
which all human loves are but 
a reflection — God so loved 
the world that He sent His only 
begotten Son to redeem it. It is 
this that is the tiding of 
great joy as the angels say "For 
you is born today in the town 
of David a Saviour who is 
Christ the Lord." Bethlehem is 

tteacSdifJof! 



at once therefore the glad t id-
ings of Christianity and the vis-
ible and striking manifestation 
of its central mystery. For when 
the believer kneels before the 
crib and seeks to capture its 
meaning he knows that he is 
face to face with the mystery of 
God made man. 

That it is a tremendous mys-
tery no believing Christian 
would deny. That is has been 
looked upon as sheer folly we 
have ample testimony. History 
is filled with the words and 
deeds of those who have found 
it a scandal and a stumbling 
block. But that it is central and 
essential to the Christian view 
of man and of the world and of 
human history is inescapable. 
For when we say with St. John 
the Evangelist that "the Word 
was made flesh and dwelt 
amongst us" we mean in the 
full literal sense of the words 
that the Son of God, truly God, 
has journeyed from eternity to 
time and in the scriptural phase 
"has his tent among us." We af -
firm and believe that "God the 
everlasting and Almighty has 
become a child and lies in the 
manger." Folly and nonsense 
say many — blasphemy, arro-
gance, say others. But those of 
us who affirm the reality of this 
unique and tremendous histori-
cal event and kneel before it 
say simply "I believe" knowing 
that our power to say it is not 
of man but of God and God's 
grace. 

We know that the living God 
and His infinite love is not sub-
ject to nor circumscribed by our 

limitations and dictates as to 
how He shall appear among us. 
We are sure that He Who made 
the world and ourselves can en-
ter into creation when and as 
He will. And knowing the tre-
mendous resources of human 
love we are sure that the in-
finite depths of divine love in-
finitely transcend human possi-
bilities or imagination. 

More than this we know that 
the history of man is marked by 
a clear consciousness of his need 
of redemption. For the normal 
man has a real, even if at times 
an obscure sense of spiritual 
reality. He is conscious too of 
the evil and misery of a life 
that is enslaved to sensual im-
pulse and self interest. More-
over in his real moments of in-
sight the normal man is aware 
that he has contributed to the 
flood of human evil by self-
glorification and the will to 
power and avarice and lust. 
Again, no matter how he tries 
he cannot escape the mystery of 
pain and death. How then over-
come and transform these 
conditions of human existence 
so as to actualize his highest 
and noblest aspirations? This is 
the fundamental religious prob-
lem which is as much a part of 
the history of man as man him-
self. One may of course chal-
lenge this view as belonging to 
the past. But "the past is simply 
the record of the experience of 
humanity and if that experience 
testifies to a permanent human 
need then that need must mani-
fest itself in the future no less 
than in the past."' 



Hence it is fitting that God 
Who made us but a little lower 
than Himself and crowned us 
with honor and glory and made 
us in His own likeness — it is 
fitting that He should be mind-
ful of us and in His infinite love 
reach out to fill that need. And 
the faith of living and histori-
cal Christianity is that He did 
just that — as St. Paul writes 
to the Galatians: "So too when 
we were children we were en-
slaved under the elements of 
the world. But when the fu l -
ness of time came God sent His 
son born of a woman under the 
law that we might receive the 
adoption of sons. And because 
you are sons of God has sent the 
spirit of His son into our hearts 
crying Abba Father. So that 
he is no longer a slave, but a 
son and as a son an heir also 
through God." 

It is this conviction that is the 
loving source of the Christmas 
gospel. It is the social and his-
torical implications of this that 
are the very structure of living 
Christianity. 

First of all it is this central 
t ruth of Christianity made 
manifest at Bethlehem that sets 
Jesus Christ and His teaching 
in an entirely different category 
from such thinkers and religi-
ous leaders as Socrates and 
Buddha. The contrast He sets 
before the world is not merely 
moral. It is not the contrast be-
tween flesh and the spirit or the 
sensual and the spiritual, but 
rather between this world and 
the next, between time and 
eternity, between the kingdom 

of God and the kingdom of the 
world. Because the only begot-
ten Son of God has become man 
then man is brought into his-
torical and effective relation-
ship with the world of divine 
purposes and values. By rea-
son of this he can and does look 
beyond the world of man and 
his works. He is introduced in-
to a range of reality that t ran-
scends the finite and temporal 
world to whieh the state and 
the economic order belong. 

For Christ by reason of His 
nativity is a living bridge be-
tween the two worlds. He 
brings the spiritual order into 
the world of man and opening 
the door of the spiritual world 
to man. The word of God made 
flesh becomes the principle of a 
new order at once historical 
like man and eternal like God. 
Time and eternity, the visible 
and the invisible, the spiritual 
and the material, flesh and 
spirit, are united in living 
fashion and made capable of 
fulfilling the divine purpose of 
history. Man has the living tes-
timony of God's own word that 
he is engraced with an eternal 
destiny — that he is the object 
of the visible and effective 
bodying forth of God's love. He 
knows now that he stands in a 
relationship with God that 
transcends all accidents of birth 
or politics or economics. 

In St. Paul's ringing words: 
"For you are all the children of 
God through faith in Jesus 
Christ. For all you who have 
been baptized into Christ have 
put on Christ. There is neither 



Jew nor Greek, there is neith-
er slave nor freeman, there is 
neither male nor female. For 
you are all one in Jesus Christ." 

Yet the full significance of 
the Word made flesh—of God 
become man is not realized sim-
ply by stating that the living 
God has entered into human 
history. It also calls for the fu r -
ther affirmation that by His ex-
istence in the world, by His 
life, teaching and death He 
brings actual redemption to 
man. It is the affirmation that 
so highly does God regard man 
that His own Son sacrificed His 
life that men might have the 
power to meet and conquer sin. 
In the words of St. Paul to the 
Phillipians: "Christ Jesus Who 
though He was by nature God, 
did not consider being equal to 
God a thing to be clung to but 
emptied himself taking the na-
ture of a slave and being made 
like unto men. And appearing 
in the form of man He humbled 
Himself becoming obedient to 
death, even unto the death of 
the cross." 

It is this reality of God's re-
demptive design that ful l t id-
ings of great joy comes to us: 
"Today is born to you in the 
town of David a Saviour who 
is Christ the Lord." Because 
therefore Christ is the son of 
God His redemptive work has 
infinite and total value before 
God. But because He is not 
merely man but the man, the 
new Adam the head of man-
kind the first-born among many 
brethren then He is also our 
brother and so He mediates for 

all of us the great high priest 
"always living to make inter-
cession for us." Because He is 
our brother, because by the will 
of God He is the new head of 
humanity called to redemption 
then as St. Thomas says, "the 
passion of Christ belongs to us 
really as though we ourselves 
had suffered it." 

For the Christ of history and 
therefore the Christianity of 
Christ face up frankly and 
without fear to the fact of sin. 
It recognizes sin for what it is 
—the only essential evil—for 
only sin can thwart the eternal 
destiny of man. Clearly and 
effectively Christ recognizes — 
as history also evidences—that 
when man is left to himself 
moral example alone does not 
suffice to overcome the weight 
of selfishness and pride and lust 
of hatred and cruelty that marks 
the torrent of human custom. 
Christ therefore sheds His 
blood unto the remission of sin 
and as He tells His disciples, 
"Fear not little flock I have 
overcome the world." 

It is also from the standpoint 
of the word made flesh and His 
redemptive purposes that the 
believing Christian views the 
world he knows that since God 
Himself has entered into history 
that he as a Christian cannot 
surrender the responsibility of 
his earthly citizenship, for the 
kingdom of God is with us and 
in us. By reason of the Incar-
nation he knows that Jesus 
Christ became a citizen of the 
world without ceasing to be 



God. Hence he knows that as a 
contemporary French writer has 
put it: "the world is a real work 
of a good God and has a real val-
ue—Man's task is not to liber-
ate himself from time but to 
liberate himself through time; 
not to escape from the world 
but to accept it. Thus the world 
that the Christian accepts is the 
order and beauty and good will 
from the beginning and visibly 
expressed in Christ. What he 
protests is the whole mass of 
evil and disorder and deformity 
introduced by sin. The question 
for him is not whether the 
world is good or evil but wheth-
er the world is sufficient to it-
self and whether it suffices." 

And here taught by the spiri-
tual experience of humanity and 
the revelation of God through 
His Son become man the Chris-
tian knows that it is not. For 
he knows as St. Paul tells the 
Ephesians: "God has made 
known to us the mystery of 
His will according to His good 
pleasure. And this His good 
pleasure He purposed in Him to 
be dispensed in the fulness of 
time: to reestablish all things 
in Christ both in heaven and 
those on earth." 

It is in the light of all this 
that Bethlehem becomes an in-
escapable personal challenge to 
the believing Christian. This 
tremendous t ruth can make no 
effective contribution to our 
lives and needs unless each of 
us strives with all his powers to 
realize it in his judgments and 
choices and attitudes. It is the 

realization that the starkness 
and poverty and bareness of 
Bethlehem are not mere win-
dow-dressing, but the direct ex-
pression of God's word to man. 
God and the things of God do 
not come clothed in the t rap-
pings of. power and glory and 
ambition and the values of the 
spirit are not dependent on 
things but on faith and love. 

The working of the power of 
God unto salvation calls upon 
us to realize that the world does 
not suffice but that only through 
humility and poverty of spirit 
do our hearts and minds open 
to the love of God and its vis-
ible manifestation at Bethle-
hem. Here alone is the wisdom 
which is foolishness to those 
who do not believe and the 
strength which is weakness to 
the worldly. For Bethlehem is 
open only to the humble and 
contrite of heart and to them 
alone is addressed the lovely 
words of the Apostle John in 
his first epistles. "I write 
of what was from the begin-
ning what we have heard, what 
we have seen with our eyes, 
what we have looked upon and 
our hands have handled: of the 
Word of Life. And the Life was 
made known and we have seen 
and now testify and announce 
to you the Life eternal which 
was with the Father and has ap-
peared to us. What we have 
seen and have heard we an-
nounce to you in order that you 
may have fellowship with us 
and that our fellowship may be 
with the Father and with His 



Son Jesus Christ. And these may rejoice and our joy may 
things we write to you that you be full." 

The musical featu res for this series were pre-

sented by St. Bonaventure Chorus of Cincinnati, 

Ohio, under the direction of Mr. Omer Westendorf. 



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