When did
Jesus become fully confident that he was God?
When he was
born?
When, as a
boy, he talked with the elders in the temple?
When he
turned water into wine?
When he left
the tomb on Easter morning?
Our faith
and our Church tell us
That Jesus
was true God and true man.
One person,
a single individual—but with two natures.
Human and
Divine.
With one
nature as the Son of God.
God the Son
who always was and always will be.
And another
nature as a human being with a beginning in time.
Throughout
history, and for us today, this is a difficult concept.
Indeed, we
can’t even begin to grasp it as truth, except through faith.
There have
been heresies—
Some
claiming Jesus was man only.
Others
saying he was God, taking on only the appearance of a man.
But, we believe Jesus is the only begotten Son of God.
God from God, Light from Light.
True God from true God.
Consubstantial with the Father.
And also
that He came down from Heaven, and by the
Holy Spirit
Was incarnate of the Virgin Mary and became man.
It’s not
easy to wrap our minds around that.
In the early
days, the Church struggled.
Great
theologians—Doctors of the Church—Church Councils,
All have
struggled to understand this mystery.
Still today,
when we think of Jesus in a particular situation,
Like
delivering the sermon on the mount,
We have a
tendency to think of him as either God or man—not both.
We might
have to remind ourselves
To reconsider
the story or the lesson from the other perspective.
Most of the
world’s 7 billion people don’t have the truth about Jesus.
They don’t
believe that he was God.
Many don’t
even know or believe that he existed.
Many others,
including the 1.6 billion Muslims,
Believe he
was a nearly perfect man, a great prophet—but only a man.
Many of the
world’s 2.3 billion Christians have the truth.
But even
some nominal Christians deny that he’s fully God.
And others
deny that he was fully human.
The old
heresies live on.
Today’s
Gospel passage is one of those where
Jesus makes a
clear claim that he is indeed God.
He says that
he existed before Abraham,
Who had already
been dead for nearly 2,000 years.
He calls
himself I AM, a name reserved for God
alone.
He’s
confident, but are his claims based on knowledge—on
certainty?
Or on great faith in what he has heard the Father
telling him?
That dual
nature, human and divine in one person, remains a mystery.
Our own
human nature presents some mystery too, its own
duality.
Humans have
always had a dual essence—we’re body and soul.
When Jesus
ascended into Heaven,
He reached
back and elevated our human essence.
He made us
not just body and soul; but body, soul, and temple of God.
He brought
us a step closer to his own dual nature.
He sent his
Spirit, the Spirit of God, to dwell within us.
Not giving
us a divine nature like his own,
But putting a
touch of that Divinity within us.
At our best,
we can now rise to being little less than
Gods.
The world
today needs us to exercise that power of the Spirit.
To spread
the love and mercy and truth that that Spirit brings.
Believing in
that Spirit, working with that Spirit,
We can help to
end the disregard and blatant denial of truth.
Help to end
war and hatred and injustice.
We can heal
the world.
When will we
become fully confident
That we have
the powerful Spirit of God dwelling within us?
Tuesday, 5th Week of Lent
Jn 8:51-59 Read this Scripture @usccb.org
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