What does the Church teach about the Father of Jesus Christ? Part Five

In the last post, we discussed how God the Father created the world.  Tonight we will continue our series on God the Father by discussing how the Father, as Creator, guides and sustains this creation.

We mentioned in the last post that the term divine providence is used to describe how God guides the world.  The Catechism (#302) explains why it is necessary that God continue to guide creation once he began it:

Creation has its own goodness and proper perfection, but it did not spring forth complete from the hands of the Creator. The universe was created "in a state of journeying" (in statu viae) toward an ultimate perfection yet to be attained, to which God has destined it. We call "divine providence" the dispositions by which God guides his creation toward this perfection:

By his providence God protects and governs all things which he has made, "reaching mightily from one end of the earth to the other, and ordering all things well". For "all are open and laid bare to his eyes", even those things which are yet to come into existence through the free action of creatures.

An important point here is that the work of creation is ongoing.   It is not a thing that is over.  Yes, it had a beginning, but it continues to this day.  It is not perfect or complete: it is on the road to completeness, to ultimate perfection. 

God cares for everything in his creation, from the smallest speck of dust to the biggest ocean, from the least powerful people in the world to the most powerful.   In the words of the Catechism (#303), God’s solicitude is concrete and immediate.   He cares for every detail of our lives, and every detail of every living thing in creation.   This reality is the basis behind a lot of the Church’s teaching on the dignity of the human person, as well as the environment.   In all this, we can see him truly acting like a good Father.  Just as a father cares for every detail of all his children’s lives, so does God care about the details of all his children’s lives.

God does make use of the cooperation of his creatures (us) in the work of creation.   The Catechism (#306) notes that this is not a sign of weakness, but rather a token of almighty God's greatness and goodness.  God is the first cause of everything, we are secondary causes.  It speaks to our dignity that we are allowed to share in this work of creation, through our work, prayer, and our sufferings.

If God is in control of everything, then how can we explain the existence of evil?  There are two basic reasons:

1)      God respects our freedom.   If he is free, so must we, too, be free, as his creatures.

2)      God knows how to draw good out of evil.   

Do these both not sound like the qualities of a good father?

The Catechism (#312 and #324) points us to what happened to Christ as both the perfect example of the reality of evil, and an insight into why evil is allowed:  From the greatest moral evil ever committed - the rejection and murder of God's only Son, caused by the sins of all men - God, by his grace that "abounded all the more", brought the greatest of goods: the glorification of Christ and our redemption.  The fact that God permits physical and even moral evil is a mystery that God  illuminates by his Son Jesus Christ who died and rose to vanquish evil. Faith gives us the certainty that God would not permit an evil if he did not cause a good to come from that very evil, by ways that we shall fully know only in eternal life.  

Sometimes we see human parents allow their children to suffer in the form of a punishment as a result of a wrong the child did, as to bring a greater good out of it, such as better behavior.   Along the same lines of thought, God allows us to experience the effects of evil so as to bring a greater good out of it.  Most of the time, we will not likely fully understand the good until the next life.  (For more details on why we suffer, and our response to it, please see my recent series on the mystery of suffering.)

In all this, we can see the hand of a real loving Father at work. 

Let us go back once more to the beginning of the Nicene Creed, which this series is based on.

I believe in one God,
the Father almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all things visible and invisible.

So we now have discussed God as “one”, “Father”, “almighty”, and “creator”.

The next few posts will deal with the actual creation: the heavens and the earth.  It will refer back to the Creator, but the main focus will be the actual creation itself.  In light of that, I will close this series on God the Father with this post, and will, in the next post, start a new mini-series on God’s creation. 

I thank you for joining me in this series on God the Father.  Let us come to know God as Father, a loving Divine Person who willed us into existence, knows us better than anyone, loves us better than anyone, and is interested in every single detail of our life.

The next post may not be for a little while as I will be on vacation for a handful of days starting tomorrow.  I wish you all a Happy and blessed Thanksgiving!

Joseph most prudent, pray for us.

What does the Church teach about the Father of Jesus Christ? Part Four

In today’s post, we will begin to look at God the Father as the creator of heaven and earth.   In this post, we will look at the initial creation of the world.   In the next post, we will look at how God the Father continues to guide creation through what we term divine providence.

What are the very first words of the Bible?  "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." (Genesis 1:1)   So the story of salvation begins with creation, and so our individual stories begin with our own creation.

It is critical that we examine creation because it helps answer some questions like “Where did the world including myself, come from?”, and “Where are we going?”  Creation helps us understand not just about our origin, but our end, as well. 

To this end, there are different theories about creation out there: for example we can hear things like:  

• the world is evil, a result of sin
• the world is God
• the development of the world is the development of God
• the world has always existed and is just material things, or perhaps
• God created the world, but then abandoned it to men 

It is human, the Catechism points out, to inquire about man’s origins.  It is a good thing to do so. We can, as we have alluded to, come to know God as creator through natural reason.   

However, as we have also stated, there is another order of knowledge, Divine Revelation.  Through Revelation, we come to know this Creator is Father, and we are confirmed in our knowledge of him as Creator.   One channel of Revelation, as we have spoken about, is Sacred Scripture. The first three books of Genesis (the creation of the world in seven days, the creation of man and woman, and the fall) are of prime importance in telling the truth about creation.

Going back again to those very first few words in Genesis, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."  , the Catechism in #290 notes that this sentence confirms three things:

1)      the eternal God gave a beginning to all that exists outside of himself

2)      he alone is Creator (the verb "create" - Hebrew bara - always has God for its subject)

3)      The totality of what exists (expressed by the formula "the heavens and the earth") depends on the One who gives it being

So our world (and the world to come) had a beginning, a beginning that was caused by God alone without any help, this world is not God, but rather a separate entity from him, and everything in this world and in the world to come, however, is caused by him. 

In the Trinity, it is indeed the Father who creates, but he creates by the Son.  "In the beginning was the Word. . . and the Word was God. . . all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made John 1:1-5.   So it is entirely appropriate that we are speaking about creation in this series on God the Father.

Why did God the Father create the world?  The Church teaches that God did so to show his glory, and share it.   This is an act of omnipotence, but more importantly, of love and goodness.   The act of creation was one of wisdom and love, not chance.   Since the act was wise, so the creation itself is necessarily therefore ordered and good.  God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good Genesis 1:31.   

But beyond just creating the world, he also sustains it.    We read in #301: With creation, God does not abandon his creatures to themselves. He not only gives them being and existence, but also, and at every moment, upholds and sustains them in being, enables them to act and brings them to their final end.

As we stated at the beginning, we will speak more about the ongoing process of creation in the next post.

Joseph, mode of artisans, pray for us.

What does the Church teach about the Father of Jesus Christ? Part Three

I believe in one God,
the Father almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all things visible and invisible.

We have spoken about God as “one God”, and as “Father”.  Today we will focus on the word “almighty”.

The Catechism in #268 lists several different implications of saying that God is “almighty":

1)      God’s might is universal.   He created everything, so he rules everything.  The universe is subject to him and at his disposal.    He governs all of history.  Nothing is impossible for him.

2)      God’s power is loving.  He is Father.  His fatherhood and power shed light on each other.  His love reveals his power.  He shows his power by taking care of our needs, adopting us in his Son, and providing infinite mercy to us.  

3)      God’s power is mysterious.  It is made present in weakness, something only faith can reveal. But to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.  For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. ( 1 Corinthians 1:24-25)  The Father revealed his power in the sufferings, and subsequent Resurrection of his Son, which he ordained, and through which evil was conquered.   The seeming powerlessness of God is what the world sees, but through faith, we see he is not powerless at all.  He has done something about evil.   If he can send his own Son to die for us, is there anything he cannot do?

In the world we live in, it is sometimes difficult to believe that there is an almighty God.   We often think if he was almighty, he would do more than he is.   Yet, as we addressed in our series on suffering, God has a purpose for everything, including allowing suffering.   We, because we are not almighty, may not understand it totally, but this is where faith comes in, and where we must accept that we do not understand his wisdom now, but one day, we will.

One final point needs to be made about God’s power.  The Catechism notes in #271: God's almighty power is in no way arbitrary: "In God, power, essence, will, intellect, wisdom, and justice are all identical. Nothing therefore can be in God's power which could not be in his just will or his wise intellect.   There is nothing about God that is not perfect.   His power is perfect: he is all powerful.  His will is perfect.   His intellect is perfect.  He is perfectly just.   God is almighty, and this perfection and power apply to everything about him.

So let us rejoice that the Father who created us, sustains us, and loves us is capable of doing anything for us.  He lacks nothing.   If we stay united with him, then neither shall we lack anything we need.

In the next post, we will begin to look at God the Father as creator.

Joseph most just, pray for us.

What does the Church teach about the Father of Jesus Christ? Part Two

Let us begin by recalling the words of the Nicene Creed that are the focus of this series:

I believe in one God,
the Father almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all things visible and invisible.

In the last post, we focused in on the words “one God”.   Tonight, we will focus in on the word “Father”.

God is one, but in three divine persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  This is the central mystery of the entire Christian faith, and it is the central message of Divine Revelation.    When we spoke in the last series about Christ, who is the Son, we made some allusions to his relationship to the Father.   Here is one that is important for our purposes here as we discuss the Father:

 Jesus reveals himself as the Son, and therefore, reveals God as Father.   He is the reason God is Father, and therefore, has a special understanding of him.

Now it is very important to note something here.   As the Catechism notes in #238, many religions invoke God as Father, but more in the sense of being the creator of things, the first origin of everything, and a transcendent authority.   And some may even add to that a sense of parental care for the world and his children in it.   However, Jesus reveals God as Father in a whole new sense, as one who is rightly called Father because he has a Son.   God is not just Father because he created the world, or even because he cares for it, but rather, again, because he has a Son.  This is what is utterly unique about Christianity amongst all the world religions.  This notion of divine sonship in God may be tough to grasp, but trying to come to some understanding of it, with the help of divine grace, is a task that can bring us more joy than any other task we will ever take.

As we said before, Jesus is begotten of the Father, not created, so he always existed in time.  The Father begets the son, and the love between them is the Holy Spirit.   The Father, therefore, in the words of the Catechism (#245) is “the source and origin of the whole divinity.”    We also read the relationship between the three explained this way (#254):  "It is the Father who generates, the Son who is begotten, and the Holy Spirit who proceeds." 

It is the Father who created the world, and creates our life.  (We will speak more about creation later in this series.)  He is the ultimate decision maker.  But everything he does is through the Son, in the power of the Holy Spirit.   Or, put, another way as we read in #258:  Thus the Church confesses, following the New Testament, "one God and Father from whom all things are, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all things are, and one Holy Spirit in whom all things are".

We all came from the heavenly Father.   We owe everything to him.

The Catechism notes that because of fallen human nature, the ideal of fatherhood is not always lived out as it should be in the world today.  And because of that, some people may have difficulty relating to God as Father.    The Catechism addresses this reality in in #239:   God's parental tenderness can also be expressed by the image of motherhood, which emphasizes God's immanence, the intimacy between Creator and creature. The language of faith thus draws on the human experience of parents, who are in a way the first representatives of God for man. But this experience also tells us that human parents are fallible and can disfigure the face of fatherhood and motherhood. We ought therefore to recall that God transcends the human distinction between the sexes. He is neither man nor woman: he is God. He also transcends human fatherhood and motherhood, although he is their origin and standard: no one is father as God is Father.

Jesus reveals God as Father, and so we should call him that.  However, the Father transcends human fatherhood and so calling God Father is not quite the same as calling our earthly parents Father, even though there are similarities.  Therefore, if we have not had the best experiences with our earthly fathers, we still can relate to the Father because he transcends motherhood and fatherhood as we know it, but we can incorporate images from both, even as we call him Father.

It is important that society come back to acknowledge God as Father not just for the standard "return to morality" reasons, or "to stop the erosion of family life" reasons, important as they both are.  What is even more important, I think,  is that we come to grips with the reality that we have a Father who loves us as his own, cares for us, and is a God of relationship, who wants to have one with us.  This can help us deal with the reality of the loneliness and isolation so many of us experience.  By coming to know God as Father, and telling others about him, we can help make the world a little less lonely, and we can become more of the human family God wants us to be.

In the next post, we will look at God as “almighty”.

Joseph, foster father of the Son of God, pray for us.


(The attached painting is “God the Father” by Giovanni Domenico.)

What does the Church teach about the Father of Jesus Christ? Part One

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.  If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.  Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.”  Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.  John 14:6-9

Our Lord Jesus Christ, whom we discussed last series, points us to the Father.  In this series, we will discuss the Father.

Like the last series, this series, too, will base itself on the Nicene Creed that we say every Sunday at Mass.   The section we will deal with in this series is the very first part which reads:

I believe in one God,
the Father almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all things visible and invisible.

There are some important words in there, all of which we will touch in this series:  one, God, Father, almighty, maker, heaven, earth, visible, invisible

We will begin today with the first line “I believe in one God.”

I did a few posts a while back on the ways of coming to know God.   We can come to know him through nature, through our interior longings, and also through Divine Revelation.   For more details, here are the links to the posts in question:

http://jimscatholicblog.blogspot.com/2016/06/coming-to-know-god.html

http://jimscatholicblog.blogspot.com/2016/06/divine-revelation.html

As we come to know God through all these means, what do we come to know?

We know he is one, and he is the only one. We see this in both the Old and New Testaments, as we read in #201 and #202 : To Israel, his chosen, God revealed himself as the only One: "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD; and you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might." Through the prophets, God calls Israel and all nations to turn to him, the one and only God: "Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.... To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. 'Only in the LORD, it shall be said of me, are righteousness and strength.'" Jesus himself affirms that God is "the one Lord" whom you must love "with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength".

God indeed reveals himself as the only God to the people of Israel.   This is the beginning of the Divine Revelation, which will culminate in the person of Christ.   To Moses at the burning bush, he says his name is YHWH, which means “I am who am.”   Disclosing a name to someone is a means of allowing one to get to know you.  It does not mean we then know right then and there everything about a person, but revealing a name certainly goes a long way: we cannot get to know someone without knowing their name.   God’s name which means “ I am who am” means he is someone who is always there, faithful, unique, and the source of all that we have, without whom we are nothing.   He is truth itself, and love itself.

But even with this name, God does remain mysterious.  The phrase “I am who am” is a revelation, but it is still a little mysterious as the Catechism explains in #206:  This divine name is mysterious just as God is mystery. It is at once a name revealed and something like the refusal of a name, and hence it better expresses God as what he is - infinitely above everything that we can understand or say: he is the "hidden God", his name is ineffable, and he is the God who makes himself close to men.   In #230, the Catechism has a nice quote on this from Saint Augustine:  "If you understood him, it would not be God"

What are the implications of having faith in one God?   The Catechism lists several in #223-#227:

It means coming to know God's greatness and majesty.

It means living in thanksgiving: if God is the only One, everything we are and have comes from him

It means knowing the unity and true dignity of all men: everyone is made in the image and likeness of God.

It means making good use of created things: faith in God, the only One, leads us to use everything that is not God only insofar as it brings us closer to him, and to detach ourselves from it insofar as it turns us away from him

It means trusting God in every circumstance, even in adversity.

There are many beautiful implications to God being the one and only, but also obligations, as we see here.

In the next post, we will discuss God as Father.

Joseph, renowned offspring of David, pray for us.

What does the Church teach about Jesus Christ? Part Twelve

Tonight, we wrap up this series on what the Church teaches about Jesus Christ.   Here again is the part of the Nicene Creed, that we say every Sunday, that deals with the person of Jesus Christ, and that this series was based on.

I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the Only Begotten Son of God,
born of the Father before all ages.
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father;
through him all things were made.
For us men and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,
and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary,
and became man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate,
he suffered death and was buried,
and rose again on the third day
in accordance with the Scriptures.
He ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead
and his kingdom will have no end.

In this series, we touched on both the person of Jesus Christ, and the life he lived before he came to Earth, while on Earth, and now living in glory reigning with the Father in the Kingdom.

I think the most beautiful thing about Christ is that he is both fully God, and fully man.   He can sympathize with us in our weakness, not because he is weak himself, but because he endured all that we suffer.   Yet, at the same time, by uniting ourselves with him, we can share in his divine power that helped him endure and ultimately triumph over all that life brings our way.

But it goes beyond just the good of having him alongside us during our life journey.  He also points us heavenly to a life beyond all our imagining.  He not only is our guide and companion in life: he is, with the Father and the Spirit, the end or goal of our life.  Just as the world was created through him, so we were created through him and we live our lives in him.   To be with him where he is now is to be the goal we all strive for.  He both accompanies us on the journey, while at the same time, since he is God, he is the end of the journey itself.   Christ is truly all in all, and that must apply to each of us, as well.

So it is very important that we all develop a relationship with Jesus Christ.  In the Catholic understanding, that relationship begins at Baptism where we bury ourselves with him, so we can rise with him.  It is then nurtured with the other Sacraments that we receive throughout the course of life, especially the Eucharist, where Christ is present in his fullness, and we receive him in that fullness.  Outside the Sacraments, the other prominent way of getting to know Christ is to hear the New Testament proclaimed, and read it for ourselves.  Listening to what it says about Christ through the stories it tells about him will help us grow in our knowledge and love of him.   Finally, through others who are close to Christ themselves, like the holy people we know, or people who seem to have a dramatic sharing in the sufferings of Christ, like the poor and the sick, will likewise bring us close to Jesus.

It is very sad to hear of people who leave the Catholic Church and say it was because they never knew Christ.   Christ founded the Catholic Church, and is wedded to her.  She is his bride.  Christ is closer to the Catholic Church than anything or anyone else in this world.  It is truly tragic that so many are seemingly not able to see the Bridegroom when they see the Bride.  We must seek to change that.  Getting to know Jesus more ourselves, through more frequent reception of the Sacraments, more frequent listening to and reading the Scriptures, and encounter with him present in the holy, the poor, and the sick, is a good first step that can go a long way to making us better equipped to stop this exodus of people from the Church to other churches, or out of Christianity all together.  We must all become better at showing people the face of Jesus Christ, who is truly the joy of all man’s desiring.

Thank you for joining me in this series.

Joseph, foster father of the Son of God, pray for us.

What does the Church teach about Jesus Christ? Part Eleven

In today’s post, as we head towards the end of our current series on Jesus Christ, we will look at Jesus as he is now, and what he will do at the end of time.   This is especially appropriate to reflect on during this month of November when we remember the deceased, and think of the end of our own life journeys.

We read in one of Saint Paul’s letters which was written a few decades after the Ascension:

God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.  (Ephesians 1:20-22)

The Catechism notes several things about Our Lord’s existence now:

1)      Now that he has ascended into heaven, Jesus Christ reigns with his Father.  He is the lord of history, and all of creation.   This means he is lord of the past, present, and future, and not just of this world, but of the world to come, the kingdom, which he inaugurated.

2)      He is also head of the church.  The Church is his body, and it is through the Church that Christ dwells on Earth.  This he can do while still reigning in heaven.

3)      This kingdom is present, and through it, the world is being irrevocably transformed, but it is not yet fulfilled completely.   Our Lord inferred this when he spoke to his followers just before the Ascension:   So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?”  He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority (Acts 1:6-7) This fulfillment and realization of the kingdom will come only at the end of time.

4)      Christ does reign in heaven, and in the Church, but not all things in the world are subject to him. That will only come when Jesus comes again. This is a time of watching and waiting, with some trial and tribulation mixed in because evil still has some leeway to operate. 

The Catechism then notes a few details on the coming of Our Lord at the end of time:

1)      The Lord will not come until Israel recognizes Jesus as Messiah.  This, in turn, only will happen when the Gospel has been preached to the end of the earth.   We read in #674 “For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?" The "full inclusion" of the Jews in the Messiah's salvation, in the wake of "the full number of the Gentiles",  will enable the People of God to achieve "the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ", in which "God may be all in all".   Read Romans Chapter 11 for Scriptural evidence of this belief in the necessity of this happening.

2)      Another thing must happen, too, before Our Lord returns.   The Antichrist will come. We read in #675:  The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the "mystery of iniquity" in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh.   Read 2 Thessalonians Chapter 2 for Scriptural foundations for belief in the coming of the Antichrist.   This Antichrist will cause a shake of faith that will shake the Church, and cause much trial and tribulation.   The subject of the Antichrist is definitely worth a post of its own at some point.

3)      After these things have occurred (the Gospel has been preached to the ends of the world, Israel accepts Jesus, and the Antichrist has come), Our Lord will return.  Our Lord spoke of the judgment of the nations: “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory.  All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. (Matthew 25:31-33)   We read in #682:  When he comes at the end of time to judge the living and the dead, the glorious Christ will reveal the secret disposition of hearts and will render to each man according to his works, and according to his acceptance or refusal of grace.  Unlike his previous coming, when he came humbly as a poor child, in this one, he will be fully transparent and clear to all: he will come in all his glory.

There are two posts I have written already that relate to what we have discussed here that might be worth revisiting if you have not read already.  One has to do with Jesus as judge, and the other has to do with judgment, both our particular judgment and the Final Judgment.  Links are below:

http://jimscatholicblog.blogspot.com/2016/12/jesus-just-judge.html

http://jimscatholicblog.blogspot.com/2016/11/tough-teachings-judgment.html

So now we have covered the titles and identity of Jesus, as well as provided a birds eye view of his life before he became man, his life here on Earth, as well as what his existence is like now as he reigns in glory with his Father.  We have also touched on what is still to come.

In the next post, the final in this series, we will reflect on all that we have gone over, and what it means for us.

Joseph most strong, pray for us.

This picture may be known to some of you.   It is the mosaic of Jesus as judge at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.)

What does the Church teach about Jesus Christ? Part Ten

In today’s post, we will look at Our Lord’s final appearance on Earth, the Ascension.

Jesus’ glory, even after the Resurrection, was still not made wholly manifest.  First, no one actually witnessed the Resurrection.  Secondly, the body he was in still had the appearance of an ordinary mortal body, even as it had now new supernatural properties.  However, with the Ascension, Jesus’ entry into divine glory is fully realized.

What the Risen Lord said to Mary Magdalene confirms there is an element to his glory that is not yet fully realized at the Resurrection, but will at the Ascension: "I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God." (John 20:17). There is a distinction between the glory of Jesus as shown at the Resurrection, and that shown at the Ascension.  Only in the latter does he become seated at God’s right hand, and receive the honor truly befitting his divinity. 

Now, one might argue Jesus was always at God’s right hand as the second member of the Blessed Trinity.  However, after the life of Our Lord on Earth, he now has a body within the Trinity.  There is an intimate connection between God and man that was not there before.  Because there is a body in the Trinity, we can have hope that our bodies will one day be there, too.  

The Ascension is linked to the Incarnation.  Jesus came down from heaven to become man in the Incarnation.  With the Ascension, that is reversed.  Jesus goes into heaven so that man came become like God.    As Our Lord says, "No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended from heaven, the Son of man." (John 3:13)   Jesus has to be the one to ascend in order to open the doors of heaven to us.

Our Lord does not ascend into heaven, however, to just do nothing and take it easy.   Rather, he intercedes for us before the throne of the Father.    Jesus “entered, not into a sanctuary made by human hands. . . but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf." (Hebrews 9:24).   When we go to Mass, or any of the other Sacraments, and enter into the heavenly liturgy, we are present as Christ blesses the Father and makes intercession for us.

Finally, Our Lord’s entry into heaven and being seated at the right hand of the Father is the full inauguration of the Kingdom.    The Catechism quotes a beautiful passage from the Book of Daniel which now is fully realized with Our Lord’s reigning in heaven in his glorified body:  "To him was given dominion and glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.” (Daniel 7:14)   The Kingdom of God has begun, and will never end.   The only question now is will we be a part of it.

Jesus’ suffering redeemed us from sin.  His Resurrection opened the way for us to new life.  His Ascension is that way to new life.   We must follow in all three if we, too, wish to have divine life in us, now, and for all eternity.

There will be two more posts in this series.   In the next post, we will discuss Jesus as the Judge, which is how he will come at the end of time.  In the final post, we will summarize and reflect on what we have covered in this series.  

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

What does the Church teach about Jesus Christ? Part Nine

Before we begin to discuss the wondrous Resurrection of Our Lord, let us recap what we have covered so far in this series on what the Church teaches about Jesus Christ:

1)      The 4 major identities of this person:  Jesus. Christ, Son of God, and Lord.

2)      Jesus living in the Trinity  (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) as the Second Person, the Son

3)      The Incarnation, God becoming man  in the Person of Jesus

4)      Common elements to all of Jesus’ life: revelation, redemption, recapitulation.

5)      The Infancy narrative

6)      The public ministry of Jesus

7)      The Suffering of Jesus

8)      The burial and descent into hell of Jesus

And now we come to the highlight of Our Lord’s life on Earth, his Resurrection.

Let us review some key points the Catechism makes about this wondrous, glorious, yet mysterious event.

First off, the Resurrection is a historical event.  It happened in human history.  It is not made-up.  Here is the evidence:

1)      The empty tomb We read in #640:  "Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen." The first element we encounter in the framework of the Easter events is the empty tomb. In itself it is not a direct proof of Resurrection; the absence of Christ's body from the tomb could be explained otherwise.  Nonetheless the empty tomb was still an essential sign for all. Its discovery by the disciples was the first step toward recognizing the very fact of the Resurrection. This was the case, first with the holy women, and then with Peter.  The disciple "whom Jesus loved" affirmed that when he entered the empty tomb and discovered "the linen cloths lying there", "he saw and believed". This suggests that he realized from the empty tomb's condition that the absence of Jesus' body could not have been of human doing and that Jesus had not simply returned to earthly life as had been the case with Lazarus.    The empty tomb did not convince them entirely he was resurrected, but it began the process of them being open to the possibility.  It was a first step.  The second piece of evidence will complete the process of convincing them.

2)      The appearances of the Risen One   We read in #641: Mary Magdalene and the holy women who came to finish anointing the body of Jesus, which had been buried in haste because the Sabbath began on the evening of Good Friday, were the first to encounter the Risen One.  Thus the women were the first messengers of Christ's Resurrection for the apostles themselves. They were the next to whom Jesus appears: first Peter, then the Twelve. Peter had been called to strengthen the faith of his brothers, and so sees the Risen One before them; it is on the basis of his testimony that the community exclaims: "The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!"    These accounts of these appearances are extremely credible, as the Catechism explains on #643 and #644, because of the inclination of those first witnesses to doubt and uncertainty, and how it took something like this to sway them.  These paragraphs are worth quoting in their entirety:   Given all these testimonies, Christ's Resurrection cannot be interpreted as something outside the physical order, and it is impossible not to acknowledge it as an historical fact. It is clear from the facts that the disciples' faith was drastically put to the test by their master's Passion and death on the cross, which he had foretold.  The shock provoked by the Passion was so great that at least some of the disciples did not at once believe in the news of the Resurrection. Far from showing us a community seized by a mystical exaltation, the Gospels present us with disciples demoralized ("looking sad"⁾ and frightened. For they had not believed the holy women returning from the tomb and had regarded their words as an "idle tale". When Jesus reveals himself to the Eleven on Easter evening, "he upbraided them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. Even when faced with the reality of the risen Jesus the disciples are still doubtful, so impossible did the thing seem: they thought they were seeing a ghost. "In their joy they were still disbelieving and still wondering.Thomas will also experience the test of doubt and St. Matthew relates that during the risen Lord's last appearance in Galilee "some doubted." Therefore the hypothesis that the Resurrection was produced by the apostles' faith (or credulity) will not hold up. On the contrary their faith in the Resurrection was born, under the action of divine grace, from their direct experience of the reality of the risen Jesus.    These witnesses to the Risen One are definitely reliable with their testimony.  They required a lot of convincing to get them to believe!

The Catechism speaks of the state of Jesus’ body after the Resurrection.  It was the same, real body as the one had before, but it had been changed:  By means of touch and the sharing of a meal, the risen Jesus establishes direct contact with his disciples. He invites them in this way to recognize that he is not a ghost and above all to verify that the risen body in which he appears to them is the same body that had been tortured and crucified, for it still bears the traces of his Passion. Yet at the same time this authentic, real body possesses the new properties of a glorious body: not limited by space and time but able to be present how and when he wills; for Christ's humanity can no longer be confined to earth, and belongs henceforth only to the Father's divine realm.  For this reason too the risen Jesus enjoys the sovereign freedom of appearing as he wishes: in the guise of a gardener or in other forms familiar to his disciples, precisely to awaken their faith. (#645)    

In addition to being a historical event, the Resurrection is also a transcendent one.  No one witnessed the actual Resurrection.  It cannot be explained by physical factors alone.  It is at the heart of the mystery of faith.   Yes, it occurred in history, but it is also transcends and surpasses it.

Each of the other persons of the Trinity is involved in the Resurrection.  The Father raised up the Son, and brought his humanity, his body, into the Trinity, through the Holy Spirit, who actually breathed life into the body. 


Finally, what is the meaning of the Resurrection, as both a historical and transcendent event?

1)      It confirms all of Christ’s works and teachings. It validates what he said and did during his public ministry.

2)      It fulfills all his promises, as well as ones from the Old Testament.   He is truly the long awaited for Savior.

3)      It confirms his divinity.   He is the Son of God.

4)      It opens for us the way to a new life.   We are not just liberated from sin; we are now partakers in divine life with Our Lord.

5)      It is the source of our future resurrection.  It gives us hope that if we unite ourselves to him through Baptism, and remain in a state of grace, we, too, will rise.

At the beginning of this series, I said that it was OK to read other writings on Jesus, but only after you know what the Catechism says.   I cannot stress that enough when it comes to the Resurrection.   While you can find plenty of good material out there that goes into a lot more detail on each of the points made in this post,  and remains faithful to them, you will find plenty of writings out there that speak on this topic that go against what the Church teaches.  You will find things that say the Resurrection was a hoax, that Jesus’ teachings are what is the most important and the Resurrection was something his followers made up to whip up support for his teachings.   Do not believe them!  If Our Lord is not raised from the dead, Jesus is a liar, and the Christian faith is meaningless.  Everything rides on it.

The Resurrection was a glorious event.  But Our Lord’s life on Earth did not end there:  there is one more event in the life of Jesus that we have to discuss and that is his Ascension.  We will do that in the next post.

Joseph, light of Patriarchs, pray for us.