In the 16th century,
St.
Ignatius wrote a meditation on the Incarnation.
In it,
Ignatius invites us to do something remarkable—to imagine ourselves present at the very moment when the Trinity decides to send the sun into our world.
Ignatius asks us to see the world as God sees it—to look upon humanity with divine eyes.
In his original meditation,
He has us visualize the whole earth,
With its diverse peoples and places,
Its beauty and its brokenness.
Then he draws us into what he calls the Divine Conversation—the moment when the Trinity chooses to enter human history through the Incarnation.
What you're about to hear is a contemporary reimagining of this meditation.
While Ignatius had his listeners imagine the world of the 16th century,
We'll be contemplating our modern world in all its realities.
Yet the core truth remains the same—divine love still chooses to be born into our world,
Meeting us exactly where we are.
As you listen,
I invite you to settle into a comfortable position,
To breathe deeply,
And to allow your imagination to open.
Let yourself be present to both the challenges of our time and the eternal mystery of God's loving response.
Let us begin.
See in your mind's eye our world from above—the vast expanse of continents and oceans,
Great cities and remote villages,
All connected by invisible threads of data and commerce.
Watch the streams of humanity moving through subway stations,
Across bridges,
Through airports and along highways.
Eight billion souls,
Each carrying their own hopes,
Sorrows,
And struggles.
Observe how people scroll endlessly through their phones,
Searching for meaning in fragments of information.
Notice the refugee camps stretching to the horizon,
The overcrowded hospitals,
The lonely elderly in their apartments,
The children staring at screens instead of sky.
See the melting glaciers,
The burning forests,
The rising seas,
A planet groaning under the weight of human activity.
Now lift your gaze still higher,
Beyond the atmosphere,
Beyond time itself,
To contemplate the divine perspective.
See how the Trinity,
Creator,
Word,
And Spirit,
Looks upon this world with infinite love and infinite sorrow.
Hear their eternal conversation.
Look at our beloved creation,
How they race through their days,
Barely stopping to breathe.
See how they long for connection,
Yet build walls between themselves.
Watch how they search for truth,
But drown in misinformation.
They have built towers to the heavens,
But cannot find their way home to themselves,
To each other,
To us.
They suffer,
From climate anxiety,
From digital addiction,
From loneliness and crowds,
From the weight of existence in an age of endless possibility and peril.
They have gained knowledge,
But lost wisdom.
They have conquered distance,
But forgotten how to be present.
The time has come.
As we did once before,
We must enter their world.
Not in power,
But in vulnerability.
Not in the clash of armies,
But in the cry of a child.
We must speak their language,
Walk their streets,
Share their struggles.
We must show them that love is stronger than algorithms,
That presence is more precious than performance,
That hope can be born even in the darkness of human hearts.
And so,
The word takes flesh once again.
Not in a remote village,
But in the heart of our modern world.
Not in a stable,
But perhaps in a homeless shelter,
Or a refugee camp,
Or an overlooked corner of a great city.
The divine enters our digital age,
Our climate crisis,
Our pandemic world,
Our divided societies.
Not to condemn,
But to transform.
Not to overpower,
But to accompany.
Where do you stand in this contemporary nativity?
Are you scrolling past without noticing?
Are you too busy optimizing your life to see the divine being born in your midst?
Or are you among those who pause,
Look up from their screens,
And recognize the sacred breaking into our secular age?
Consider how love still chooses to be born in the most unexpected places,
Among the most unexpected people.
Reflect on how the incarnation continues to unfold in our time,
Inviting us to close our laptops,
Put down our phones,
And kneel in wonder before the mystery of divine love made tangible in our troubled world.
How will you respond to this ongoing incarnation?
What gift will you bring to this modern manger?
Divine Word,
Still choosing to enter our complex world,
Help us to look up from our screens to see your face,
To pause our endless scrolling to feel your presence,
To silence our notifications to hear your voice,
And to open our hurried hearts to your transforming love.
Amen.
From heaven's heights we gaze below,
Upon a world wrapped deep in night,
Where souls cry out in silent woe,
And hearts grow dim without true light.
Our love compels us now to move,
As three in one we choose to prove,
The depths of mercy yet unknown.
Let us go down,
Let us be found,
Among the lost and lonely crowd.
Our Word made flesh,
Our Spirit's breath,
We'll show them what love's all about.
The sun will empty glory's throne,
To enter time and space confined.
The Spirit hovers making known,
The perfect path we have designed.
The Father's heart will send His best,
Into the world to be its guest,
And bridge the chasm sin has grown.
Let us go down,
We'll show them what love's all about.
Before the dawn of time began,
We knew this day would come to pass,
When deity would dwell with man,
And glory walk on morning grass.
Now angels wait with bated breath,
To see salvation's mystery blessed.
Raise her heart prepared by grace divine,
Through her will enter human ways,
And make of earth a sacred shrine.
The Word takes flesh,
The Spirit seals,
While Father's purpose now reveals.
The love that makes all peoples one.
Let us go down,
Let us be found,
We'll show them what love's all about.
