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Book
Review:
"The Mystery of the Incarnation" Cardinal Basil Hume. pp 158 (Darton, Longman, Todd, $30) The late Cardinal Hume wrote with great warmth, lucidity and simplicity. The most inspired chapters are those that concentrate on the sublime mystery of the Incarnation, so simply expounded in that classic passage from St John (ch.3:16): 'God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that Whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.' 'He so loved the world' - that is the key to understanding the Incarnation and Hume stresses this point constantly and that love of God which prompted the coming of God the Son to become one of us is a personal love for each one of us. God never looks at crowds but he sees only the individual. Hume expresses his Christian optimism thus: 'God wants to enter into our lives ... not into our lives in general but into each person's life .... Never forget the deepest meaning of the Incarnation: that God so loved the world, so loved you, that he came to find space in your mind and in your heart where he can be with you and you with him.' The consequences of the Incarnation are most relevant and vital to us all. It means that all that is human has been touched by the divine, sin excepted. The thirty years of Jesus' life were spent leading the very ordinary, routine life of a person in his time, like the vast majority of the human race. This "ordinariness" of Christ's life is constantly stressed also by the great Jesuit theologian, Fr Karl Rahner. What impresses me so much about Hume is his deep and constant optimism. The Gospel really is 'the good news' as proclaimed by Christ and his constant stress on God's individual, personal love. St John writes: "God IS love" - not just that he loves, but that he is entirely love, the embodiment of love, and constantly seeking OUR love. Hume recalls a picture in St Paul's Cathedral, called 'The Light of the World'. In that picture, Jesus Christ is seen standing at a closed door. In one hand he carries a lamp and with the other he is knocking at the door, but on the outside there is neither knob nor handle. The visitor can only enter if the person within opens the door from inside. The lesson is this.. Jesus Christ does not force himself on us - hence no handle on the outside. But in his mysterious love, Christ IS knocking all the time at our door - but do we let him in ? Hume's thoughts on doubts of faith are so relevant in our times. He writes. "Lord I do believe. Help thou my unbelief." What a marvellous prayer that is. I used to confess from time to time to sins of doubt until I realised that doubt was my best friend, and not my foe. Doubt is the instrument to purify my faith. It is only when I begin to doubt that I really make an honest act of faith .... If you have doubts, try to understand that this can lead you to make that perfect act of faith which is always done in pain and sometimes in agony ... Faith is a gift from God. "Very often people say they find it difficult to believe. What they are really saying is that they are finding it difficult to understand - but belief is one thing, understanding another." Cardinal Hume has packed a lot of deep and varied spiritual essays into this compact book but his most original and stimulating thoughts centre on the Incarnation, surely the most pivotal event in all human history. |