Today is the day that FDR stated was a day that would “live in infamy.” He was right—at least for members of what Tom Brokaw dubbed the “Greatest Generation” as well as history students for years to come. December 7, 1941 the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the United States of America was suddenly thrust into WWII whether it wanted to be or not.
The incarnation was also an invasion. But it was not a day that lives in infamy. Rather, it is a day that is celebrated by millions of people over two millennia. Why? Because this invasion was, as John’s gospel says—an invasion of light into darkness. C. S. Lewis said the Incarnation was the “grand miracle” over and above all other miracles. It is about the turning of the tide. It is an act of violence. Fellow “Inkling” J. R. R. Tolkien employs a bit of analogy in “Morgoth’s Ring,” specifically in the "Debate of Finrod and Andreth." In the debate, Andreth, a “wisewoman” talks about the natures of the races of elves and men. In speaking of man’s “fall” Andreth says hopefully that Ilúvatar, the creator—“the One will himself enter into Arda, and heal men and all the marring from the beginning to the end.” In response to Andreth, Finrond the elf, wonders how the author of creation—a creation that is “other” than Ilúvatar the creator, can enter what he created without causing a catastrophe by tearing it to pieces. He finally resolves, “I cannot conceive how else this healing could be achieved.”
The New Creation breaks forth in the Incarnation. “It relates not a series of disconnected raids on Nature but the various steps of a strategically coherent invasion – an invasion which intends complete conquest and ‘occupation.’” This invasion is not by an impersonal force, “It is Christ Himself.” Tolkien touches on this theme in a lecture entitled "On Fairy Stories." In the lecture, he sketches the shape of the classic fairytale and introduces a concept that many believe was original to Tolkien – even to the point of coining the word itself – eucatastrophe. In the afterword to his lecture, Tolkien says that the Gospels contain this element of a fairy story––or a story of a larger kind which embraces all the essences of fairy stories. Among the marvels of the story is the greatest conceivable eucatastrophe––the birth of Christ. The Incarnation is the eucatastrophe of man's history. The story begins and ends in joy. Tolkien, a devout Catholic was not saying that the Bible is a fairy story. He was saying that fairy stories get their way of telling a story of a great turnaround of events—what Lewis called a “turning of the tide” and what Tolkien called a eucatastrophe—a reversal of fortune—from the Bible.
Just as Pearl Harbor was the beginning of the turning of the tide in WWII and eventually led to the eventually VJ and VE days, so the Incarnation was the turning of the tide that led to the victory of the Cross and Resurrection and the defeat of death, hell and the grave.
[2]C. S. Lewis, “To Mrs. Ashton” November 8, 1952, in Letters of C. S. Lewis, rev. and enl. Ed., ed. Walter Hooper (San Diego: Harcourt Brace, 1993), 248.
The incarnation was also an invasion. But it was not a day that lives in infamy. Rather, it is a day that is celebrated by millions of people over two millennia. Why? Because this invasion was, as John’s gospel says—an invasion of light into darkness. C. S. Lewis said the Incarnation was the “grand miracle” over and above all other miracles. It is about the turning of the tide. It is an act of violence. Fellow “Inkling” J. R. R. Tolkien employs a bit of analogy in “Morgoth’s Ring,” specifically in the "Debate of Finrod and Andreth." In the debate, Andreth, a “wisewoman” talks about the natures of the races of elves and men. In speaking of man’s “fall” Andreth says hopefully that Ilúvatar, the creator—“the One will himself enter into Arda, and heal men and all the marring from the beginning to the end.” In response to Andreth, Finrond the elf, wonders how the author of creation—a creation that is “other” than Ilúvatar the creator, can enter what he created without causing a catastrophe by tearing it to pieces. He finally resolves, “I cannot conceive how else this healing could be achieved.”
The New Creation breaks forth in the Incarnation. “It relates not a series of disconnected raids on Nature but the various steps of a strategically coherent invasion – an invasion which intends complete conquest and ‘occupation.’” This invasion is not by an impersonal force, “It is Christ Himself.” Tolkien touches on this theme in a lecture entitled "On Fairy Stories." In the lecture, he sketches the shape of the classic fairytale and introduces a concept that many believe was original to Tolkien – even to the point of coining the word itself – eucatastrophe. In the afterword to his lecture, Tolkien says that the Gospels contain this element of a fairy story––or a story of a larger kind which embraces all the essences of fairy stories. Among the marvels of the story is the greatest conceivable eucatastrophe––the birth of Christ. The Incarnation is the eucatastrophe of man's history. The story begins and ends in joy. Tolkien, a devout Catholic was not saying that the Bible is a fairy story. He was saying that fairy stories get their way of telling a story of a great turnaround of events—what Lewis called a “turning of the tide” and what Tolkien called a eucatastrophe—a reversal of fortune—from the Bible.
Just as Pearl Harbor was the beginning of the turning of the tide in WWII and eventually led to the eventually VJ and VE days, so the Incarnation was the turning of the tide that led to the victory of the Cross and Resurrection and the defeat of death, hell and the grave.
[2]C. S. Lewis, “To Mrs. Ashton” November 8, 1952, in Letters of C. S. Lewis, rev. and enl. Ed., ed. Walter Hooper (San Diego: Harcourt Brace, 1993), 248.
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