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Abraham your father rejoiced to see my day;
he saw it and was glad.”
So the Jews said to him,
“You are not yet fifty years old and you have seen Abraham?”
Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you,
before Abraham came to be, I AM.”
he saw it and was glad.”
So the Jews said to him,
“You are not yet fifty years old and you have seen Abraham?”
Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you,
before Abraham came to be, I AM.”
During our responsorial psalm today we declare, “The Lord remembers his covenant forever.” Jesus speaks of this forever when he declares that “Abraham rejoiced to see my day,” for He is the Everlasting Covenant. Jesus is the Eternal Word of God made flesh. And he is the “I AM” who is God.
The Nestorian heresy, which persists in the Coptic and Ethiopian rites of upper Egypt, teach that there are two persons in Jesus. There is Jesus, the son of Mary, a good, willing and obedient man; and there is the Son of God. Both appear as one man but, in fact, the son of Mary is “possessed” by the Son of God, and they are not actually the same person. Mary’s son suffered and died on the cross; the Son of God did not. The Nestorians were unwilling to imagine the scandalous nonsense (I Corinthians 1:23) of God’s incarnate mortal flesh.
The doctrine was repudiated by the Councils of Nicea and Chalcedon. We insist that Jesus is both the Son of Mary and the Son of God. This is important because there is no other way we could be saved. First, the god who would stand apart from our human nature, saving us by handing a slave over to crucifixion, would not be penetrate the deepest part of our being where sin resides. Secondly, we might pity the poor man who died so cruelly but pity keeps its distance from the sufferer. It cannot actually enter the experience or be transformed by it.
If we are saved it is by the God who embraces our human nature with its vulnerability, shame and guilt. If we are saved it is by our willingness to embrace the same human nature which God has loved.
Sin refuses to stoop so low. It clings to power for as long as possible. Assailed on every side by the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to, sin must amass innumerable powers: financial, military, police, health, love, luxury, popularity, food, entertainment and so forth. But life will break through. No one can amass so much power as to stop corruption and death.
Only Jesus can show us the way out, for he is the Way that leads through death to life. The Everlasting Word, who knew Abraham and Moses and David, knows you and me. He takes our hands as we walk in his footprints.
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I love to write. This blog helps me to meditate on the Word of God, and I hope to make some contribution to our contemplations of God's Mighty Works.
Ordinarily, I write these reflections two or three weeks in advance of their publication. I do not intend to comment on current events.
I understand many people prefer gender-neutral references to "God." I don't disagree with them but find that language impersonal, unappealing and tasteless. When I refer to "God" I think of the One whom Jesus called "Abba" and "Father", and I would not attempt to improve on Jesus' language.
You're welcome to add a thought or raise a question.