# “Smitten with awe” by Athanasius of Alexandria (A.D. 293-373)

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2009/04/28/smitten-with-awe-by-athanasius-of-alexandria-ad-293-373/
- Published: 2009-04-28T05:05:39-05:00
- Author: tollelege

“Such and so many are the Saviour’s achievements that follow from His Incarnation,
that to try to number them is like gazing at the open sea and trying to count the
waves. One cannot see all the waves with one’s eyes, for when one tries to do so
those that are following on baffle one’s senses. Even so, when one wants to take
in all the achievements of Christ in the body, one cannot do so, even by reckoning
them up, for the things that transcend one’s thoughts are always more than those
one thinks that one has grasped.

As we cannot speak adequately about even a part of His work, therefore, it will 
be better for us not to speak about it as a whole. So we will mention but one thing
more, and then leave the whole for you to marvel at. For, indeed everything about
it is marvelous, and wherever a man turns his gaze he sees the Godhead of the Word
and is smitten with awe.”

–Athanasius, _On the Incarnation_ 8. 54. (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary
Press, 373/1993), 93.

More on [Incarnation](https://tollelege.net/category/incarnation/)