"For the Son of God became man so that we might become God."

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"For the Son of God became man so that we might become God" was written by Holy Father Athanasios the Great, Archbishop of Alexandria , in De inc., 54, 3: PG, 192B, in his refutation of Arius during the First Ecumenical Council.

A priest named Arius and his followers denied the divinity of Holy God the Son within the Holy Trinity / Our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ. Seeking to preserve the supreme transcenence of Holy God, they taught that Our Lord, God and Savior, Jesus Christ was simply the most perfect created being, gifted with saving power by Holy God. This teaching denies that Holy God the Son within the Holy Trinity / Our Lord, God and Savior, Jesus Christ is Holy God and that Holy God is Three Divine Persons, the Holy Trinity.

Holy God the Son within the Holy Trinity / Our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ is both human and divine.

Great Feast of the Annunciation (Al Bisharah) of The Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary (One of the Twelve Great Feasts, class 2)

The Annunciation

25 March - The Holy Archangel Gabriel announced to Mary that she would be The Theotokos (Mother of God). Mary said yes to that annuncement (Great Feast of the Annunciation (Al Bisharah) of The Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary).

Holy God the Son within the Holy Trinity / Our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ is both human and divine.

The Incarnation

Human because Holy God the Son within the Holy Trinity / Our Lord, God and Savior, Jesus Christ was conceived as a human being.

Incarnation means the union of divinity with humanity in Holy God the Son within the Holy Trinity / Our Lord, God and Saviour, Jesus Christ. This occurred when Holy God the Son within the Holy Trinity / Our Lord, God and Saviour, Jesus Christ was concieved in human form.

The Incarnation occured immediately after Mary said yes to the announcement of the Archangel Gabriel. Holy God the Son within the Holy Trinity / Our Lord, God and Savior, Jesus Christ took flesh by the power of the Holy God the Holy Spirit and the cooperation of The Theotokos, an Ever-Lasting Virgin. Holy God the Son within the Holy Trinity / Our Lord, God and Savior, Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of the Holy God the Father.

Divine because Holy God the Son within the Holy Trinity / Our Lord, God and Savior, Jesus Christ is the second person in the Holy Trinity, God the Son.

An Explanation from Rev. Fr. Dennis C. Smolarski S.J., Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA, in Handout #80.

St. Athanasius (295-373 A.D.)
God became man that we might become God

The Word of God, incorporeal and incorruptible, came among us, though he had never been far off. For he left no part of the creation void of his presence, but filled all things, living as he does with the Father. But he came among us to help us by showing us his love...

Filled with compassion for our race, taking pity on our weakness, condescending to our corruption, refusing to allow death to have dominion over us, in order that what had begun should not perish and that the work of his Father should not be useless, he took a body, a body no different from ours ...

Those who talk of the human aspects of the Word also know what appertains to his divinity... When they speak of his tears they know that the Lord shows us humanity by his tears and his divinity by raising Lazarus; they know that the Lord experienced hunger and thirst, while feeding in a divine manner five thousand people with five loaves; they know that his human body lay in the tomb and was raised as the body of God...

The Word was made man that we might be made God: he was made visible by his body that we might have an idea of the invisible Father, he endured the outrages inflicted on him by men that we might share in his immortality. He did not undergo any harm, since as Word of God he was impassable and incorruptible. But in this way he saved from danger the suffering humanity for which he endured all this.

Extracts quoted in Quasten, Patrology, III, II3f.

An Explanation from "The Tree of Life," newsletter of Holy Cross Melkite Catholic Church, Placentia, CA

The Real Meaning of Christmas: God's Gift to Us
St Athanasios of Alexandria (295-373 A.D.) wrote that "God became man so that we might become children of God." This means that God became one of us so that we could become what God is-this, divine. ¡ We who were created in the image and likeness of God lost our divinity when our first parents, Adam and Eve, sinned. God could not bear to see the work of His own hands perish-that is, die. ¡ So, in the full-ness of time, God send His only-begotten Son, born of a virgin, a human being like us in all things but sin-to save us. ¡ We call this act of God becoming man Incarnation-that is, taking flesh. ¡ This is what Christmas is all about. It is God With Us. It is without doubt one of the greatest events in human history. ¡ We are invited to celebrate this Nativity of Christ with great love. ¡ Christmas today is confusing. Filled with songs about snow and reindeer; hours and hours of shopping; and so on. When it finally arrives, we are almost happy that it's over. Many mistake it for a time to visit friends and family. The reality is that we are celebrating God's gift to us. To miss out on celebrating the Birth of Christ or to replace it with something else is to miss the entire point of God's plan for us. ¡ This year, make sure that you take time to worship the God who became human, so that you can become divine.

A Explanation from Rev. Father Miguel Grave de Peralta, Priest of Saint Ignatios of Antioch Melkite Greek Catholic Church, Augusta, Georgia.

It points to the deification (theosis) we are to strive for in our lives through the energy of God's Holy Spirit. I suppose a Western way of stating it is "We are called to be by grace what Christ is by His nature."