Towards a New Definition of Incarnation

Advent begins the Christian year, a period of waiting and spiritual preparation for the Incarnation of Christ, the birth of the baby Jesus. The enfleshment of God in the human person of Jesus Christ is a foundational tenet in Christianity, which worships a Triune God that is fully transcendent and fully human. God in Christ takes on human form and the sins of the world so that humanity may be redeemed and made new by being baptized or initiated into the mystery of Christ’s Body on earth, otherwise known as the one catholic church. [Small “c” catholic as a modifier for church means universal church, whose first usage is attributed to Saint Ignatius of Antioch, ca 107 CE.]

Well, that certainly is mysterious and even mystical. But what does it mean for us mere mortals? What does it mean to be a member of the Body of Christ? What does incarnation have to do with us, especially in an age when there is both real space, that is, physical space that our corporal bodies inhabit, and cyber space, which we also inhabit through our words and images?

One of the current debates in church circles is whether or not electronic meetings via Web or tele-conferencing can substitute for in-person meetings. Most church leaders today would argue that in-person meetings are superior, even imperative, to virtual meetings in order for groups of individuals, some of whom may not have previously met in person, to form relationships that would then enhance communications and presumably the work of the group. Our bias towards incarnational – embodied – relationships is part of our religious identity at the moment. That bias and our identity are also part of the way we’ve always done things, especially when our finances supported our proclivities.

Yet, there is a generation, represented by the Millennials (also known as Generation Y comprised of individuals born from the early 1980s to the early 2000s), who comfortably inhabit the cyber world where relationships are formed across not only neighborhoods, but continents, by people who have never met in person. Early adopters of Internet based technology born before the Millennials might also be counted among those who traverse the cyber world with ease and grace. These groups foster less of an entrenched and inflexible bias towards the incarnational and are open to the possibilities of unembodied relationships sharing validity with in-person relationships.

What are the characteristics of online relationships that give them an incarnational charism? First, our definition of incarnation is too narrow. We currently define it as embodiment or enfleshment, representing a physical – what we like to think of as real – presence. I would offer a new definition, which is an evolution of the term incarnation, and name incarnation as being a form of presence. So, when a person is incarnate to me, that person is present to me in an emotional or spiritual way such that I have an experience of that person being present to me. The way that person set apart in cyber space makes me feel and think is as real as if that person were physically in front of me and I could see their facial expressions, smell their skin and hair, and take in their pheromones. My experience of their presence – their incarnation – is real.

Many people in third world countries are now linked to the wider world through the Internet and the increasing universality of English. The traditional definition of incarnation as being a physical embodiment is a privileged bias of individuals in nations where transportation and travel are taken for granted. For many villagers in Africa, Asia, or South America, travel to the nearest larger village or urban center is an undertaking that is neither casual, affordable, or accessible, and may never occur in their lifetime.

Yet, through the Internet and proxies for people from the privileged nations, people in third world country villages can experience the presence of the other from across the globe. When an aid worker, missionary, or pilgrim visits a remote village, that person serves as a proxy for the ones who contribute the money to send them. A proxy is incarnate in the physical sense, but the one who sends is not incarnate except in a virtual sense, his or her presence known only through the recipients having a sense, an emotional or spiritual experience of what he or she is sending in terms of a message, a blessing, or a gift. This was true for Paul with his many letters to the emerging Christian communities; Paul was present to the Corinthians and the Philippians in words, if not in person, especially when he was imprisoned.

Christians talk about Christ in each of us, meaning that we humans adopt the charisms of Christ and become the hands and feet of Christ in the world, providing friendship, nurture, and aid to fellow humans in need. We say things like “seeing the face of Christ” in the other, meaning that we see beyond another human’s mortal presence to see their soul’s presence, that part of them that is created in God’s image, often referred to as the spark of the divine. The theology that says Christian followers of Christ are the hands and feet of Christ in the world is essentially saying that we are the virtual incarnations of Christ in the world. Humans can represent the presence of God in Christ, but humans cannot be physical incarnations of God in Christ.

We can no more keep God in the flesh than we can keep God in a box. The God of Possibilities is a God that clamors to inhabit all the mysterious ways that it is possible for reality to exist, limited by neither waves nor particles.