A Christian has many special relationships with God the Incarnate Son. He is Jesus Christ’s brother by his very nature; and by baptism, a member of his mystical body. “Now you are the body of Christ”, says St Paul, “and member of member” (1 Cor 12:27).
But this is not all. In Holy Communion we become incorporated with him, in his own words: “He that eats my flesh, and drinks my blood, abides in me, and I in him.” (Jn 6:57) Living with his life, we are, says St Peter, “made partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet 1:4). What can be more blessed and glorious!
What must we do in return for these great privileges? St John tells us in very memorable words: “He that said he abides in him, ought himself also to walk even as he walked.” (Jn 6:57) Thus, we shall live St Cyprian’s meaningful words: ‘The Christian is another Christ.’
Ref: cf “Practical Meditations” by a Father of the Society of Jesus, 1964, pp311-2
‘The Father revealed by the Son’
Many religions invoke God as ‘Father’. The deity is often considered the ‘father of gods and of men’. In Israel, God is called Father since he is Creator of the world.
Even more, God is Father because of the covenant and the gift of the law to Israel, ‘his first-born son’. God is also called the Father of the king of Israel. Most especially he is ‘the Father of the poor’, of the orphaned and the widowed, who are under his loving protection.
Jesus revealed that God is Father in a novel sense: he is Father not only in being Creator; he is eternally Father by his relationship to his only Son who, reciprocally, is Son only in relation to his Father: “No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” (Mt 11:27)
Thus the apostles confess Jesus to be the ‘Word’: In the beginning was the ‘Word’, and the ‘Word’ was with God, and the ‘Word’ was God; as the image of the invisible God; as the radiance of the glory of God, the very stamp of his nature (Jn 1:1; Col 1:15; Heb 1:3).
Following this apostolic tradition, the Church confessed at the first ecumenical council at Nicaea (325) that the Son is ‘consubstantial’ with the Father, that is, only one God with him. The second ecumenical council, held at Constantinople in 381, kept this expression in its formulation of the Nicene Creed and confessed ‘the only-begotten Son of God, eternally begotten not made, consubstantial with the Father’.
‘The Incarnation of God’s Son reveals that God is the eternal Father and that the Son is consubstantial with the Father, which means that, in the Father and with the Father, the Son is one and the same God.’
Henceforth, Christ is “seated at the right hand of the Father: By ‘the Father’s right hand’ we understand the glory and honor of divinity, where he who exists as Son of God before all ages, indeed as God, of one being with the Father, is seated bodily after he became incarnate and his flesh was glorified.”
Being seated at the Father’s right hand signifies inauguration of the Messiah’s kingdom, fulfillment of prophet Daniel’s vision concerning the Son of Man: “To him was given dominion and glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is everlasting, which will not pass away, and his kingdom one that will not be destroyed. After this event the apostles became witnesses of the kingdom [that] will have no end.”
Ref: “Catechism of the Catholic Church”, Nos. 238, 240, 241, 242, 262, 663, 664
Knowing the Identity of Jesus Christ
In the seventh chapter of the Fourth Gospel, the evangelist John accurately notes the perplexity of many persons in Jerusalem about Jesus’ identity. It was the Feast of Tabernacles which recorded the Hebrews’ life in the desert. There was great movement of people in the Holy City, and Jesus was teaching in the Temple.
Some said: “Is this not the one they want to kill? Here he is, speaking openly, but they say nothing to him. Perhaps the authorities really know this is the Messiah. Yet we know where this man is from; when the Messiah comes, no one will know his origin.” (Jn 7:25-7)
Such statements indicate the perplexity of the Jews in that Temple; they awaited the Messiah; they knew that the Messiah would have something arcane and mysterious about him. They even thought that Jesus might be he, given the prodigies that he performed and the doctrines He taught. But they were not sure of it, because the official religious authority was against Him and would even eliminate Him.
Jesus explained the reason for their lack of knowledge of His real identity. They based themselves solely on external, civil and family data and ‘did not go beyond his human nature’; they did not penetrate the outside layer of his appearance. “You know me, and you know my origins. I have not come on my own. But the One who sent me is true; you do not know him. I know him, because I am from him; he sent me.” (Jn 7:28-9)
Ref: cf “Prayers and Devotions from Pope John Paul II”, p102
Reading the Gospel fruitfully
Jesus Christ is "the way, the truth and the life” (cf Jn 14:6) for each person. In knowing him we know the purpose of life and of all things. Our life is an ongoing journey towards him. It is in the Gospel that we must learn “the supreme knowledge of Jesus Christ” (Phil 3:8), how to imitate him and follow in his footsteps.
"To learn from him you must try to know his life. Read the Gospel and meditate on the scenes of the New Testament in order to understand the divine meaning of his life on earth. We must reproduce Christ’s life in our own. We need to come to know him by reading and meditating on Scripture." (cf St Josemaria Escrivá, “Christ is passing by”, 14)
Ref: cf F Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”, 2:453
Our Lady of the Star, at Aquileia, in Italy. This church is so-called, because it is affirmed that a star was seen in open day on the head of St Bernardine of Siena, when, preaching at Aquileia, he applied to the Blessed Virgin that passage of the Apocalypse where it is said that there were twelve stars on her head. — See his life in Surius. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; http://www.bethlehemobserver.com)
Our Lady of the Star. Aquiles / Aquileia, Italy. 15th Century. (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm); (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html); (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html); (http://www.starharbor.com/santiago/m feasts.html); (MaryLinks Calendar.htm)
‘Notre Dame de Grace’ / Our Lady of Grace. Montreal, Canada. (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm); (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html); [(maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html); (http://www.starharbor.com/santiago/m feasts.html); (MaryLinks Calendar.htm)]
Our Lady, Health of the Sick (Kevelær, Germany).(http://www.starharbor.com/santiago/m feasts.html); (MaryLinks Calendar.htm); (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm)
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