Jesus was born to die, because we are born to live
I once came across a beautiful image online of a medieval depiction of Christ’s Nativity. In the background of that image, hanging discreetly over the heads of Mary and Joseph and above the infant lying in the manger, was a crucifix. In the comments of the post where the image was shared, in a typical display of 21st-century sarcastic cynicism, someone wrote, “Spoiler alert!”
Modern man pokes fun at the anachronism, but the medieval artist wasn’t concerned with historical accuracy as much as conveying a deeper truth. There is a profound connection between the creche and the cross.
I cannot find the source of the quote – I may have read it in Peter Kreeft, Archbishop Sheen, or St. Athanasius – but someone wise observed that while everyone else is born to live,
Jesus was the only man born to die. That may strike us as a morbid thought for a Christmas morning, but it is true.
While everyone dies at some point, that’s not the reason any of us are brought into the world. At our conception, each of us received a great gift – life! One moment we did not exist, and the next moment we did. What a miracle! It may be true, as they say, that from the moment we are born we begin to die, but that’s not why we were made. God made us for life, not death (see Wisdom 1:13-14). The fact that we die is a result of sin (Rom 6:23), and this is precisely where Christ enters into the picture.
Unlike us, who gain our very existence from God at the moment of our conception, Christ gained nothing at the incarnation. He was not born to live – He already possessed life from all eternity. When the Son of God took on human flesh to dwell among us, it was a humbling descent.
St. Paul articulates this well in his letter to the Philippians: “(T)hough He was in the form of God, (Christ) did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, He emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, He humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross” (Phil 2:6-8).
If there is one thing we can say that the eternal Son of God gained when He took on human nature, it is this: He gained the ability to die. What is the significance of that? To make atonement for our sins? Certainly. To pay the price of our salvation? Yes. But even more fundamentally, Christ died to show His love for us.
John 3:16 tells us that the Son of God came into the world because God loves the world. Jesus says, “For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth” (Jn 18:37). And what is that truth? That there is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends (Jn 15:13). And this is how we are loved by the Father – so much that He who could not die became something that could die so that He could give up His life out of love for us. Jesus was born to die, because we are born to live.
The chapel in our campus ministry center is named for Our Lady of the Annunciation. In the sanctuary, on either side of the tabernacle, there is an icon of St. Gabriel and the Blessed Virgin. Above them hangs a crucifix and the words, “Be it done unto me according to thy word” (Lk 1:38). It is a silent juxtaposition of life and death, love and sacrifice. It reminds us that Mary’s “yes” includes the cross. The child she carried in her womb, she would also carry to His tomb.
Calvary and the crib are part of one divine act of love for mankind. And this divine love is present in the small brass box tucked between Mary and Gabriel and beneath the cross, with the flickering flame of a single candle to keep vigil.
“This is my body,” God says to Mary as He takes on flesh in her womb. “This is my body,” Jesus says to His friends at the Last Supper. “This is my body,” He says to us from the cross. “This is my body,” we hear Him say from the altar at each Mass, “which will be given up for you.” Given in the creche. Given on the cross. Given in the Eucharist – all of Him,
His Body and Blood, His birth and His death, His humanity and divinity – given to us out of love.
That is the gift that lies at the heart of Christmas. Blessed be God forever.
Deacon Matthew Newsome, Catholic campus minister at Western Carolina University and regional faith formation coordinator for the Smoky Mountain Vicariate, is the author of “The Devout Life: A Modern Guide to Practical Holiness with St. Francis de Sales,” available from Sophia Institute Press.