“This command which I enjoin on you today is not too mysterious and remote for you.  No, it is something very near to you, already in your mouths and in your hearts; you have only to carry it out.” (Deuteronomy 30:11,14).

        In this season of the Incarnation I think it is good to remember that when our Lord came to us as human, he embodied the truth that for us virtue is natural.  Too often we fall into the (heretical) trap of externalizing the Spirit that dwells in us treating him as a stranger a stranger who makes burdensome demands on us.

        This has come about over and over again trough the centuries.  Perhaps it comes from the humiliating recognition that overcoming the disorder in lives seems overwhelming at times, “…the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.” (Rom 7:19).

        This distressing state of affairs has cause many a Christian thinker to conclude that humanity has moved so far from the image of this creator that he no longer bears any resemblance at all.  Not so, says orthodoxy- and Merry Christmas.  “For there is born to you, this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” (Lk 2:11).

        For among many things that we may learn from the Incarnation is the fact that goodness is our natural heritage.  If God has indeed become flesh and dwelt among us, then we have had our essential divinity confirmed.  Our nature (perhaps all nature) has been damaged by sin and evil, but not destroyed.

        I wonder if this wonderful news is so little appreciated that the Church has decided to expand our consciousness of it by expanding the season of the year that focuses on it.  Originally, of course, the primary emphasis of our liturgical calendar was on the glorious events that brought about our salvation.  Because although we had not lost our true nature, we certainly had lost sight of it.

        The wonder of that ministry of Jesus our Christ inevitably leads us to meditate on what might move God to give his only begotten Son.  We then are confronted by the awesome goodness of god and, as made in his image, our own goodness.  Is this arrogance? Pride? It might be were it not for the evidence.  If God so loves this world, the only arrogance is to fail to rejoice and be glad.  It is pride and ungratefulness to criticize any gift, but surly the ultimate pride (foolishness?) is to criticize a gift of this magnitude.

        And Christians focused more and more on this Gift, first in the Baptism which marked the revelation of the Holy Trinity for the fist time in human history and later, on the marvelous Birth.  This season of joy should inspire us to not only give thanks to God, but to see ourselves more clearly, to appreciate our worth more deeply.

        This is the background for our approach to our growth and development as persons.  The true reason we feel so good when we succeed in virtue is not that we have conquered nature, but fulfilled it.  The “thou shalt not’s” which occupy so much of our thoughts and time are not morality, but simply the (necessary) prelude to the real stuff of morality which is virtue-being” doers of the Word, and not hearers only.” (Jas 1:22).

        There are two reasons I make such a big thing about this, our reality.  First, Psychologically, we are most likely to pursue our goal of perfection when we see it as the realization of our true self rather than a conquest of it.  We need not frame our spiritual job as binding our natural selves and donning a mantle (beautiful perhaps, but phony) of goodness.  Good is how “we s’posed to be!” We do the right thing just as we eat the right foods or take the right care of ourselves-simply because it’s the way to be human.

        But I stress this point also because in the warfare we all face against those forces in our world of un-humanity, our nature strength our weaponry, if you will-is virtue.  We commemorate in January one of the most terrible perpetrations of evil in the history of mankind: Roe v. Wade.  A hateful day! From its dreadful moment in time, millions of children have been deprived of time, and the life to fill it.  It is an evil almost too horrible to contemplate.  Yet contemplate it we must for the evil that prompted it yearns for more opportunity to despoil, “Like a roaring lion…”(1 Pt. 5:8).

        And our response is virtue.  We can only be our human selves in truth and integrity if we overcome evil with good.  A war waged without love vanquishes all who engage in it.  If the prime bearer of our true nature, Jesus himself, would not resort to fight fire with fire then we must not either.  If they do not recognize that we are Christians by our love, they will never seek the Grace that makes us Christians.  So we must direct our efforts always first to committing our selves to the perfection of that creaturely nature which is ours by gift and right.  Only then can we be worthy warriors in the fray.  After all, it’s only natural.