Incarnation

For Advent

He became Himself an object for the senses . . .athanasius

O taste and see . . .psalm 34:8

1. Carnem, caro, carnis

Or carne asada, a kind of word becoming flesh and a thinly sliced marinated beefsteak—salted, soaked in lime juice with spices, and seared off on a grill. The kind you get from a street vendor in Mexico or a taqueria in a barrio in the U.S. where there’s little to no English spoken and they only accept cash. Which is boisterous, also. And so full of common life like grime, cerveza, and “La Cucaracha.” And the cooks wear hairnets or not. And the men are all weathered and sweaty and wearing their dew-rags—there isno beauty that we should desire any of them. But nightly, inside, it has the remarkable feel of

2. Carnelevare

a carnival—Old Fr. meaning “to remove meat,” to cut it away, or quite literally, carnis + levare, “a raising of the flesh,” from which we get the word. As if to say there’s always a curious inconsistency equally in the pain of being cut to the bone and in our own revelry. As if we can’t forget the bad when there’s good, the indifferent in importance, sorrow in the joy of it. Though we try to separate them. O Lord, we try to grow content with measured time, but we want the final, sovereign Yes, and not this man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. We want what is not yet—this constant what is and what is to come—the last without the first, which is a cutting, of sorts: to cut

3. *(S)ker–

short. To cut—to carve. As in a cut of meat: rib roast, roast turkey, or goose for a Christmas feast. Or a cutting of God, or Christ taken, or removed, from God. And what would the butcher say if asked for a loin of holiest God? Would he say, “The butchering is still some time away? Come again Good Friday—” Or, instead, “Tis the season. Try the Lamb. It’s fresh.” For he was cut off out of the land of the living God just yesterday.

4. Skera, scheren

And sheared. Which is another kind of cutting. There are so many kinds: against the grain, a break, a rug, down or down to size; from the same cloth, a wide swath, some slack, the cord, the crap; to cut to ribbons, a throat, corners; to cut in or out, to cut the mustard; to cut away or both ways—so many ways to take our portion.

Therefore divide Him as a portion.

5. *Skaro–, schar

among the many—our share. To share. And find him, of course, as a stranger and invite him in; in the Epiphany, yes, but also in the toys small children drop into your shoes when you’re not looking and are off now to something more important, as, soon, you will be too. In the camaraderie had in a bad meal: if not the food—at least the spark of good it still aspired to or in the laughter at each other’s grimacing faces. In the absences this side of Ascension: in the many stricken and afflicted, see all the little flames hovering around. And in the cuts, see meat for a feast. To be savored. For today, take. And eat.