Tuesday - 4th Week of Easter 2017 - "The Father and I are one"

“The Father and I are one”

What could be more a profound statement? You can just imagine how Jesus’ hearers might have responded to this truth. In the verse following today’s reading, we hear some of his audience wanted to stone him for claiming equality with God. Others were probably so astounded that they began to reevaluate everything Jesus said and did in light of such a claim.

Jesus’s words here are certainly part of the basis of our belief in the Trinity. As St. Augustine teaches: “He did not say, 'I am the Father' or 'I and the Father are one [Person].'  But when he says 'I and the Father are one,' notice the two words 'we are' and 'one'.. if 'we are', then there is both a Father and a Son.

Jesus is one in substance with the Father, yet the Father and the Son are distinct Persons.

So Jesus words teach us WHAT God is, and he also teaches us HOW God is, what God is like.
Jesus speaks about his deeds, how they point to the Father. Later in John’s Gospel, Jesus teaches, “He who has seen me has seen the Father”. In everything he said or did, Jesus revealed something about the Father. And with each revelation, the loving, just, and compassionate character of the Father became clearer and clearer.

Whenever he healed, Jesus revealed his Father’s compassion. He revealed his Father’s mercy when he forgave the woman caught in adultery and offered living water to the woman from Samaria. He demonstrated the power of God when he calmed the storm, and showed his power to be transcendent to that of nature when he walked on turbulent waters and passed through solid walls. He showed God’s righteousness when he overturned the merchants’ tables in the temple. Time and time again, he revealed the wisdom of God as he deftly answers the religious leaders’ attempts to trap him in his own words.

God is full of wisdom, compassion, power, mercy, and love. And through Jesus we are united with God, his power and wisdom and mercy and love begin to permeate the life of the faithful Christian. Through their union with God through Jesus the Saints are powerful signs of God’s presence and care for the world, and that is our vocation as well: to become saints who point to the Father in all we say and do.

May our union with God grow today through acts of faith, prayer, and righteousness for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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Jesus is Risen from the dead, and leads his flock to eternal blessings. With new trust, we now bring our needs to the Father through him.

That all Christians may be strengthened in the grace that helps them witness to the Mercy of God.
For an increase in vocations to the priesthood and consecrated religious life, and for the 8 men who will be ordained priests in the diocese of Cleveland next Friday.

For our young parishioners who received their First Holy Communion this weekend, that they may always be blessed to raised in faith-filled homes and know the closeness of Jesus their Shepherd.
For mercy upon those who have fallen away from the faith or who have fallen into serious sin.

For the poor and homeless, for those who suffer discrimination and rejection, those with addictions or mental illness, for the imprisoned, and for all who are ill or undergoing surgery this week.

For the deceased members of our family, friends, and parish, for all of the pour souls in purgatory, and for those who have fought and died for our country’s freedom, that those who have died may be led by the Good Shepherd to the waters of eternal life.

Father, you call each of us to serve you with faithfulness and joy. Hear our prayers, and bring us to the joy that never ends. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

May 2 2017 - St. Athansius & The Lordship of Jesus Christ

In the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the ineffable Hebrew name YHWH, by which God revealed himself to Moses, is rendered as Kyrios, "Lord". When we are reading either the Old Testament or the new Testament, when we see that title, “Lord”, it is referring to God’s Divinity.
The New Testament uses the title "Lord" both for the Father and for Jesus. Scripture affirms the divinity of Jesus Christ. You can’t walk away from reading the Scripture without confronting this fact, that Jesus is fully God. This was the teaching of the Apostles. The Apostle Thomas proclaims, “My Lord and My God” when he witnesses the resurrected Christ.

The early Christian Church was persecuted for this faith, for proclaiming not “Caesar is Lord” along with the rest of the Roman Empire, but “Jesus Christ is Lord.”

One group of heretics who denied the Lordship, the divinity of Christ, were the Arians, named after a heretic priest, Arius. As Arianism spread, the Bishops of East and West gathered at the council of Nicea, to confront this problem.

St. Athanasius was a key figure at the council, at which the consubstantiality of Jesus with the Father was clarified.  Though the Council was definitive, Arianism continued to spread, due to the emperor adopting Arianism. Neither emperors nor inflated egos like rival gods!

So many bishops betrayed the faith for political gain, that one historian said, it was as if it were Athanasius contra mundum, Athanasius against the world.

Arianism spreads again in our modern culture, of course. Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses are essentially Arian, as are the Muslims. Islamic extremists in a sense are a form of militant Arians. But many modern men deny the Lordship of Christ.

We’ve seen such a decline in Church attendance and religious practice since the so-called “Golden Age” of American Catholicism in the mid-twentieth century, likely because this truth, the consubstantiality of Jesus with the Father, was not passed on to the next generation, it was sort of taken for granted, or traded in for new gods called pleasure, wealth, and power. One can typically see who or what is Lord of one’s life, by what they do on the Lord’s Day.

So we must witness to Christ’s Lordship, to his divinity in word and speech, in everything we do: helping to pass on the true faith to the next generation, to correct the faith of those in error, and strengthen those weak in their faith. May the Lord Jesus Christ, consubstantial with the Father, be with us in spreading the Holy Gospel, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
 
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God the Father was glorified in the death and resurrection of his Son. Let us pray to him with confidence.

God the Father bathed the world in splendor when Christ rose again in glory, may our minds be filled with the light of faith.

Through the resurrection of His Son, the Father opened for us the way to eternal life, may we be sustained today in our work with the hope of glory.

Through His risen Son, the Father sent the Holy Spirit into the world, may our hearts be set on fire with spiritual love.

May Jesus Christ, who was crucified to set us free, be the salvation of all those who suffer, particularly those who suffer from physical or mental illness, addiction, and grief.