Monday, December 23, 2013

A Blessed Christmas from Boris Pasternak.

When I first read Doctor Zhivago I was struck by the power of its underlying theme: that Christianity transfigured human existence to the divine by reason of the birth, life and death of the God made man, Jesus Christ. That the great mysteries of Christianity were the elements of everyone's life. A child is conceived and born. We eat bread and drink wine. We suffer and we die. By reason of Christ's divinity each one of these mundane facts of life are rendered divine.

Nothing expressed the thought better than Zvivago's contemplation of his wife's pregnancy. The babe referred to is masculine, but the sentiment applies to every man and woman of woman born.

“The mother of God is asked to ‘pray zealously to her son and her God,’ and the words of the Psalm are put into her mouth: ‘My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold from henceforth all generation shall call me blessed.’ It is because of her child that she says this, He will magnify her (‘For he that is mighty hath done to me great things’): He is her glory. Any woman could say it. For every one of them, God is in her child. Mothers of great men must have been familiar with this feeling, but then, all women are mothers of great men - it isn't their fault if life disappoints them later."

Merry Christmas.
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This is not a promo for my book "Quantum Christ" but if you are interested: