Antiphon of the Incarnation
There is a beautiful antiphon in the Church's Gregorian repertoire that is used in the Office of Vespers both on the Feast of the Circumcision of Our Lord (Octave Day of the Nativity, January 1) and on the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Presentation of Our Lord, or Candlemas Day, February 2) in the traditional liturgy. This antiphon highlights the mystery of the Incarnation in a truly sublime way.
The Latin text of the antiphon is as follows:
O admirábile commércium: Creátor géneris humáni, animátum corpus sumens, de Vírgine nasci dignátus est; et procédens homo sine sémine, largítus est nobis suam Deitátem.
It can be translated into English as:
O Admirable Exchange! The Creator of the human race, taking upon Himself a living body, deigned to be born of a Virgin: and coming forth [from Heaven] as man without a human seed, hath made us partakers of His Divinity.
This heavenly antiphon conveys so many rich ideas in relation to the Incarnation of Our Lord, ideas that can provide us not just with an infinite source of meditation material for Christmas but also for our times of Adoration before the Blessed Sacrament.
O Admirable Exchange! The antiphon begins by referring to the Incarnation as an admirable exchange. What is being exchanged in the mystery of the Incarnation? Two things: the Divinity of Jesus Christ and our humanity. In descending from Heaven and assuming our human nature (in a fully miraculous manner, without the co-operation of a human father: "without a human seed"), Christ gives us a share in His divine nature. He was the "Creator of the human race," as the antiphon says, and through the Incarnation, the Creator becomes a creature. The divine becomes human so that the human may become divine. In the words of the great Church Father St. Irenaeus of Lyons:
God became man so that man might become God.
This expression is sometimes translated as:
He became what we are, so that we might become what He is.
The idea behind this quote (which often puzzles Catholics!) is present in many of the Fathers of the early Church, and it forms the basis of what the Catholic Church calls divinization. But while many New Age schools of thought falsely teach a divinization by which man literally becomes a part of God, the Christian understanding is quite different. According to Catholic theology, divinization means that we are invited by God to become Christ-like or God-like; yet we always remain fundamentally a creature and never actually become the Creator.
To be "divinized" in the Catholic tradition means that we take on the virtues and especially the holiness of Christ through a participation or sharing in Divine Grace. Thus the Life of Christ becomes our life; Christ lives in us and through us. This is what St. Paul meant when we wrote:
In Him we live, and move, and have our being. -Acts 17:28
The Divine Life of Jesus gives us Life ("in Him we live"), orders our actions ("and move"), and is even — in the most radical way possible — the very source of our own existence ("and have our being").
In the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, at the Offertory when the Priest pours the drop of water into the Chalice where the wine has already been poured, he says in a quiet, inaudible voice the following prayer (the + denotes the sign of the Cross that the Priest traces over the water to bless it):
Deus, + qui humánæ substántiæ dignitátem mirabíliter condidísti, et mirabílius reformásti: da nobis per hujus aquæ et vini mystérium, ejus divinitátis esse consórtes, qui humanitátis nostræ fíeri dignátus est párticeps, Jesus Christus, Fílius tuus, Dóminus noster: Qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitáte Spíritus Sancti Deus: per ómnia sǽcula sæculórum. Amen.
It can be translated as:
O God who didst marvellously dignify the human race by creating it, and still more wonderfully restored it, grant that, by the Mystery of [the mingling of] this water and wine, we may be made partakers of His Divinity, by Him who vouchsafed to be made a partaker of our humanity, Jesus Christ our Lord, Thy Son, who with Thee, liveth and reigneth in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God: for ever and ever. Amen.
In the Novus Ordo form of the Mass, the prayer has been greatly reduced to the following:
By the mystery of this water and wine, may we come to share in the divinity of Christ, who humbled himself to share in our humanity.
Note also that this modern version of the prayer does not make the prayer request through Jesus Christ (at least not explicitly), as does the traditional form of this prayer. This is unfortunate, since we know that no prayer has any real worth unless it is made through the Son: "No one comes to the Father except through Me" (Jn. 14:6). There was no good reason for changing the prayer to omit the important conclusion.
If we look at the prayer in the Traditional Mass, we see clearly that it conveys the same idea as the O admirabile commercium antiphon shown above: namely, that we ask God the Father to grant us a share in His Son's Divinity (that is, to become like Him through Divine Grace) because He first deigned to become like us through the assuming of our humanity at the Incarnation. God became man so that man might become God-like (i.e. holy).
This antiphon can be listened to here, in the Gregorian version (accompanied by organ) and in a beautiful polyphonic version:
The Blessed Sacrament and the Admirable Exchange
It is not difficult to see how the Admirable Exchange antiphon of the January 1 and February 2 liturgies can apply to the Eucharistic Mystery as well as to the Incarnation itself. Once again, we see the beautiful link between Christmas and the Mass that previous posts on this blog already highlighted.
In the Incarnation, the Admirable Exchange involves God the Son (the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity) taking on our human nature, in exchange for giving man a share in His Divine Nature. At the moment of transubstantiation that occurs in the Consecration at Holy Mass, the Admirable Exchange is between bread and wine that we offer to God in exchange for the Body and Blood of Christ that He gives to us. Our humble offering of mere bread and wine are "exchanged" with the Flesh and Blood of Jesus Christ.
At the Incarnation, we give God the possibility to die (through our human nature that He assumes) and He gives us the possibility to live forever (through the Divine Nature of which He gives us a share). Whereas at the Mass, we give God bread and wine in exchange for His Body and Blood that He gives us. Note also that in the latter exchange, we receive not just the Flesh and Blood of God the Son as part of the "exchange" with bread and wine; we receive also His human soul and His Divinity!
Thus, in both the Incarnation, and the Consecration at Mass, we give God something limited and commonplace (our humanity; bread and wine) whereas in exchange we receive from God something that is sublime and supernatural (His Divinity, His Flesh and Blood). This is why both the Incarnation of God in time, and the Consecration at every Holy Mass, involve an Admirable Exchange. And in both exchanges, we receive infinitely more from God than we give to Him.
The mystery of the Blessed Sacrament is the most marvellous exchange that has ever taken place in the history of the world, the most holy "commerce" (commercium) that ever occured between God and man: second only to the mystery of the Incarnation itself! As we kneel in silence before the Eucharistic Presence of Our Lord, we are invited to contemplate the sheer gratuitousness of God's merciful love — for we always receive from God in that holy exchange infinitely more than we give to Him.
How then can we not be overwhelmed by the goodness of Our Lord when we contemplate how our meager offering to Him is infinitely multiplied and perfected in the gift of Himself that He gives back to us? Truly, the Eucharistic Mystery is the most Admirable Exchange that we can experience in this world. The Catholic Mass is God's greatest gift to the human race! O Admirabile Commercium!