A World Transformed By The Resurrection Of Jesus

 

 There is no celebration like the liturgy we celebrate at the Easter Vigil. 

The Church pulls out all the stops- fire, candles, water, incense, extra readings, special songs. All of it is meant to capture the grandeur, the might and the joy of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

The evening starts with a darkened church. It is meant to symbolize the ignorance of sin and the hopelessness of a world without God. 

One candle enters the church giving a small glimmer of hope. And, finally, as we light our individual candles from the Easter candle, the whole church is flooded with light. Christ's resurrection has scattered the darkness of ignorance, of fear and of sin. We no longer have to grope around in the darkness not knowing where to find meaning or truth or love. 

There is now no doubt. In the light of His resurrection, we have found our meaning, our truth and our love in Christ.

 How do we tap into the power of Jesus' resurrection so that His new life can be real and active in our lives?

 It is already ours through our baptism. 

Our baptism seals us with the gift of the Holy Spirit and the promise of the gift of faith.

 Like most elements of our faith, baptism has its roots in the experience of the people of Israel. To escape slavery in Egypt, God parted the Red Sea for his People. And, after forty years in the desert, the people of Israel crossed the Jordan River to enter the promised land, a land flowing with milk and honey. The waters, then, came to symbolize the passage from enslavement to new life in the promised land. John the Baptist chose the Jordan River and the symbol of baptism as a means of preparing the way for the coming of Jesus. Jesus himself chose to undergo John's baptism and commanded his disciples to baptize in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 

The faith, the new life and the power of Jesus' resurrection are ours 2000 years later because of baptism.

Most of us were babies when we were baptized. Our parents and godparents made a profession of faith on our behalf and committed themselves to raising us to know and love Jesus. 

But, at the Easter Vigil, we have an opportunity to renew the promises of our baptism. We reject sin and embrace the new life offered to us through faith in the resurrection of Jesus. We make our own the promises made for us at our baptism so that the Resurrection of Jesus Christ can be the driving force of our lives. 

Why?

 

Every Good Friday we read together the story of the Lord's passion from the gospel of John and have to ask ourselves, "why?". Why would anyone want to torture and kill Jesus? He came to preach the love of God but encountered such hate. He came to heal but was stripped, beaten and scourged. 

Why?

The cross convinces us how offensive our sins are to God. If our reconciliation with the Father required his Son to take on flesh and die for us then how far must our sins drive us from God? If our sins caused Jesus to die, then can there be any such thing as a "harmless" or "victimless" sin? 

The cross not only teaches us about the love of God, but it also teaches us something about ourselves. It convinces us that we are sinners in need of mercy and forgiveness. And it teaches us to fly to the cross for strength in temptation and for mercy when we have sinned.

Just as importantly, the cross begins to answer for us the most heart-wrenching question that every human being faces, "If God is good and all-powerful, why is there so much suffering?" 

When we look upon the cross, we do not see a God who keeps himself at a safe distance from the suffering of the people he created. We see instead a God who is with us in our trials, who feels every pain we feel and who carries us in our affliction. 

Because of Jesus' sacrifice, suffering takes on a whole new meaning in our lives. By accepting our pains and difficulties and offering them to God together with Jesus, we participate in the mystery of salvation. 

 The second reading from the letter to the Hebrews tells us that Jesus learned obedience from what he suffered and was thus perfected to become a means of salvation for the world. God wants to use our suffering to bring forgiveness of sins to the world. 

Without the cross, our suffering would be meaningless and would drive us to despair. Now in the light of Jesus' sacrifice, our pains and difficulties do not separate us from the Father but help us to grow closer to him

We Remember, We Re-live

 

 Though the word, "remember", appears frequently in the Old Testament, we only hear Jesus use the word during the Last Supper. 

It is not his miracles or his parables that Jesus tells his disciples to remember. Rather, it is the gift of his Body and Blood in the Eucharist that he wishes to leave as an everlasting legacy to his followers. 

As a good Jew, when Jesus says to his disciples, "Do this in remembrance of me", he is not asking them to reenact the Last Supper the way we might reenact a play. Instead, he wants his Body and Blood to be given to believers to sustain them throughout the centuries. 

What we celebrate is not just a commemoration of what Jesus did. It is the real thing. Whenever we celebrate Mass, we are at the foot of the cross where Jesus' body is offered and his blood spilled for us.

 It is what Saint Paul describes so clearly for us in this evening's second reading: "For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes" (1 Cor 11:26 RSV). 

 One of the most powerful and moving Negro spirituals is "Were You There." In beautiful simplicity, the song asks us if we were there when they crucified our Lord and invites us to tremble at the thought of our Savior's death. 

We were not there. We were not in the upper room at the Last Supper to share a meal with Jesus and have our feet washed by him. We were not in the garden when Jesus was undergoing his agony. We were not at the foot of the cross when he suffered and died. Nor were we at the tomb when the women discovered that it was empty and that Jesus was alive. Yet at every Mass we are brought there through the power of memory and the mystery of faith. 

Jesus comes to us in the form of bread and wine just as surely as he was present to the apostles. It is the same flesh crucified to the cross and the same blood which was spilled which we receive. Our sins are truly forgiven and we are empowered to live a new life in the Spirit.

 With this evening's liturgy, Lent officially comes to an end and the great feast we call the "Holy Triduum" begins. 

During these three days- Holy Thursday, Good Friday and the Easter Vigil- we relive the events of Jesus' life which won for us the forgiveness of sins and the promise of everlasting life. These days mark our Passover from the slavery of sin and death to the freedom of the children of God. 

Through our commemoration of these saving events, we are brought "there"- to Jerusalem, to the upper room, to Golgotha- so that we may bring Jesus and his saving power "here"- "here" to our homes, "here" to our schools, "here" to our places of business, and "here" to our hearts. 

 The thought of it should cause us to tremble

Having The Same Mind As Christ

 

Palm Sunday begins Holy Week- the most solemn week of the year for Christians. We spend these days remembering all that Jesus did to save us- the indignities He suffered, the blood He shed, the life He gave. He willingly suffered such a cruel death out of love for you and for me. He took upon Himself the punishment we deserved for our selfishness, pride and hatred. The forgiveness of our sins and the hope of everlasting life are ours because of the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross for us.

His death on the cross was an act of pure love. He had the power to put an end to it all, to allow the cup to pass Him by. He could have called down legions of angels to save Him from the Roman soldiers. As the Son of God, He could have come down from the cross. Instead, He chose to lay down His life and so take upon Himself the sins of all the world. 

 Because of His great love, He accepted a humiliating death even though He knew that so many would still refuse to recognize Him as Lord. He knew that many would still reject Him or be indifferent to His sacrifice. He knew that for many people His death would make no difference in the way they lived. Yet He pressed on obedient to the will of His Father. As the prophet Isaiah writes, “[He] set His face like flint knowing He would not be put to shame”.

This is the mystery we remember and celebrate on Palm Sunday as we read the account of His passion and death with palm branches in our hands.

 But we would miss the purpose of today’s solemnity entirely if all we did was remember it. It would be nothing more than a retelling or a re-enactment of an historic event of the past. Rather what we must do is imitate our Lord in His humility, patience and, most especially, His love. As Saint Paul tells us in the second reading, we must have within us the same attitude that Christ had.

 As He suffered for us, so we must accept suffering for Him and for others. Just as He loved those who hated Him, we must love our enemies as well as our friends. Just as He forgave those who tortured and killed Him, so we must forgive those who offend us. And just as He has shown mercy to us poor sinners, so we must reach out to the poor who are in need of our generosity.

 When we do so, the love of Christ becomes real for us and the healing power of the cross breaks into our world which can so often be dark and cold. Considering all that Jesus has done to save us, how could we ever close our hand to or turn our backs on our neighbors in their need?

Holy Week Mysteries Of The Rosary

 

1.THE ANOINTING AT BETHANY

For the virtue of magnanimity

2. THE TRIUMPHAL ENTRY INTO JERUSALEM

For the grace to welcome Christ into our hearts

3. THE CLEANSING OF THE TEMPLE

For purity of heart

4. JESUS WASHES THE DISCIPLES’ FEET

For love of neighbor

5. JESUS PRAYS FOR HIS DISCIPLES

For unity among Christians

Let Him Enter, The King Of Glory

 

 Every year of his life, Jesus made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, the commemoration of His people’s freedom from slavery in Egypt. For most of those years, He went unnoticed. He blended in with the crowds who prayed in the temple and offered sacrifice according to the Jewish law.

 However, today things are different. Jesus enters triumphantly into the Holy City. Rather than walking through the gates of the city, He rides a donkey. Rather than join the bustling crowd filing its way through the cobblestone streets, He enters the city as part of a festive parade with crowds chanting His name, laying their cloaks on the street before Him and waving palm branches in celebration.

 The crowds gathered in Jerusalem for the Passover that year had a sense that something was about to change. They had the feeling that somehow they were part of an historic occurrence, a once in a lifetime opportunity to witness history in the making. The atmosphere was charged with excitement and anticipation. And Jesus was at the center of it all.

Those crowds could not have known that in only a few short days the man they hailed as Messiah would be executed as a criminal. They could not have known that they would soon turn on Him and demand His crucifixion. Much less could the political and religious leaders who were already planning His death know that, within a week’s time, He would rise from the dead and change the course of history forever. They were all part of an historic event, but they could not yet begin to grasp its meaning for themselves and for the world.

 Jesus enters the Holy City of Jerusalem as its King and Messiah. But unlike an earthly king, He does not conquer through military power. He does not rally His disciples to attack His opponents or devise a plan to coerce the people to hand power over to Him. Rather He comes as the Suffering Servant described in today’s first reading from the prophet Isaiah. He defeats evil by doing good. He returns a blessing for a curse and forgiveness for injury. He refuses to attack those who arrest Him or to defend Himself against those who torture Him. And by so doing, He changes everything.

On A Colt, The Foal Of An Ass

 

On this Palm Sunday, we commemorate Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. 

He comes as a king to take the throne of David. But he is no earthly king. He does not enter on a muscular steed, but on a lowly donkey. It is not a well equipped army that escorts him through the gates of the royal city but a band of peasants. And he does not enter the city to take it by force but to surrender himself to a sentence of death. 

Jesus is not at all what we would expect from someone who claims to be the Son of God and Savior of the World.

 If we are to be his followers then we cannot live only for our own comfort and well-being but for his glory. 

But if we do take up our cross and follow him, we will know a joy and a peace which no one can ever take from us. And we will have treasure in heaven more glorious than we could ever hope for or imagine.

Spiritual But Not Religious? Really - Self-Centered And Naïve

 

It is common nowadays for people to describe themselves as "spiritual and not religious." We all have friends who say that about themselves or have seen the phrase written on bumper stickers.

 But what do people mean when they claim to be "spiritual but not religious"?

 Generally, they mean that they have a relationship with God or with a "higher power" without belonging to a church or adhering to any dogmas or creeds. In fact, they claim to have respect for all religions, picking and choosing from each the teachings that suit their lifestyle and the "god of their understanding". For such people, religion is not a shared, communal reality, but a personal, interior experience.

What they really mean, however, is that they are not willing to commit to anything or anyone but themselves. When you hear "spiritual but not religious" read "self-centered and naïve." 

Jesus gives insight into what it means to be genuinely spiritual in Sunday's gospel.

 Andrew and Philip approach Jesus to tell him about some Greeks who want to meet him. It is the week of Passover, close to the time when he would suffer and die. His upcoming death is weighing heavily on his heart. His "hour" is approaching, and he takes the opportunity to instruct the disciples and us about what it means to be a true follower. It means having our hearts set on eternal life. And the only way to enter into that heavenly life is to hate our earthly life. The only way to reach the glory of heaven is through death. Jesus say, "Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit." And so the person who loves Jesus is willing to follow him when it is inconvenient, when it is painful and when it is costly. The truly spiritual person who has his or her heart set on the things of heaven will follow Jesus even to the cross. The person with genuine insight into spiritual matters realizes that Jesus cannot be separated from his cross nor can eternal life be separated from death to self.

 The words of Jesus are very different from the language we hear from the "spiritual but not religious" crowd. For them, being spiritual is not a way of dying to self but of enriching oneself. It is not a way of glorifying God but of growing in self-esteem and self-fulfillment. It is not a way of seeking the things of heaven but of having a better life on earth. It is not about knowing God as he has revealed himself in Scripture and in Church teaching so that we can humbly serve others but about having secret knowledge that gives one a sense of superiority over others. This so-called "New Age" spirituality is really something very old trying to achieve the glory of heaven without the shame of the cross.

To be a true follower of Jesus, we must be both spiritual AND religious. 

We don't want to deny ourselves the experience of worship with other believers. We want to learn from the words of Scripture and the teaching of the Church. We want to benefit from the wisdom of the believers who have gone before us. We want to encounter Jesus in the Eucharist. 

This abundance of spiritual riches is ours through baptism and faith. It is a taste of heaven given to us who have decided to pick up our cross and follow Jesus. 

Grace Happens

 

 Saint Paul, on the way to persecuting Christians in Damascus, had an encounter with the Risen Jesus who interrupted his plans and changed his life forever. Instead of being the great persecutor of Christians, he became the greatest missionary for Jesus who ever lived. Grace “happened” in Saint Paul’s life, and the world has never been the same.

In last Sunday's second reading, Saint Paul writes, “even when we were dead in our transgressions, [God] brought us to life with Christ- by grace you have been saved.” Our salvation is a free gift of God. He doesn’t give it to us as a reward for any good we have done. In fact, it is precisely because we are sinners that He comes to rescue us. There is nothing we can do to earn it. It is a simple gift of His love. The word “grace” comes from the Latin word “gratia” which means “free” and communicates this idea of God’s love as a rich expression of His mercy to us.

 In last Sunday’s gospel, Jesus tells Nicodemus, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish but might have eternal life.” There are many ways that God could have saved us from our sins. But He chose to send His only Son. He chose to surrender what was most precious to Him to make it clear to us how great His love for us was.

So when the world seems most dark, when we are most lost, when things seem as though they couldn’t get any worse, that is when “grace happens”. That is when God steps in and makes the way clear for us, gives us strength to go forward, and puts within our reach what seemed impossible.

 God is not watching our lives from afar. He is intimately involved with us at every second of every day. He is close to us. He is near to us whenever we call Him. We don’t have to do anything to get His attention. Rather, it is He who is trying to get our attention! We can count on Him, especially when we are most in need. Like a loving Father, He will always give us what we need. His grace will “happen” in our lives when we most need it and often when we least expect it

A Nighttime Visit To Jesus

 

 Nicodemus was a Pharisee, a man with much power and influence. He considered himself an authority on the Jewish Law and a teacher of the people. Like the other Pharisees, he would have felt some responsibility to guard the people from error. And so he would have been especially cautious of Jesus. Nonetheless, he felt drawn by his words. So he visits Jesus at night in secret to see for himself what he is all about. He is not ready to become a follower, but he is not ready to turn his back on him either.

 Jesus welcomes Nicodemus. He does not turn him away because he is skeptical and unsure. He does not tell him to come back when he has more faith. Rather Jesus builds on the faith he already has and challenges him to recognize the gift of salvation and eternal life which he is being offered.

 There are two parts to Jesus' message to Nicodemus.

First, he speaks to him about the great love of God. Jesus was sent into the world by the Father, not to condemn it, but to bring eternal life to all those who would believe in him. God's desire is not to find fault with us but to draw us into a relationship of love with him. For this reason, Jesus would be lifted up on the cross as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert to bring forgiveness and healing.

 Second, that gift of eternal life is available to anyone who believes in Jesus. Those who believe are the ones who are willing to step out of the darkness of sin and falsehood and into the light of faith. Remember that Nicodemus is visiting Jesus at night, when it's dark, so that no one will see him. Jesus is challenging him to step into the light and not be ashamed to be counted as one of his followers. It will mean leaving behind the prestige and power he has as a leading Pharisee. It will mean being rejected and ridiculed by many of his friends. But, more importantly, if he can find the courage to step into the light, it will mean being a friend with Jesus, seeing his great works, and knowing the Father's love in a way he could not otherwise imagine

 There is a little bit of Nicodemus in each of us. Most of us have an admiration for Jesus and are moved by his words. Yet there is still a part of us that wants to hold back. We are not ready to follow Jesus all the way. We fear what others will say about us if we live our faith wholeheartedly. Or we aren't ready to give up some sinful behaviors to embrace the full message of the gospel. Others of us can't get over the shame we feel about our past life and aren't ready to welcome the Father's promise and gift of forgiveness. Each of us, in some way, prefers to meet Jesus in the dark where our ugly faults and failures can be hidden from sight.

The Second Tablet Of The Law

 

 Down the ages, rabbis have taught us that the Ten Commandments have two tablets. 

The first tablet contains the first three commandments which have to do with our relationship to God. We are to serve no other gods than He, we are not to take His name in vain and we are to keep holy the Sabbath day. 

The second tablet of the Ten Commandments deals with our responsibilities to our neighbor. It begins with the fourth commandment: “Honor your father and your mother that you may have a long life in the land.” God makes it clear that the secret to a good life in the land He had promised them begins with the family. Marriage is to have pride of place and to be respected in the order that God established. It is the only institution that can unite children with the father and mother who brought them into the world by their love. In the family, children learn the meaning of respect, hard work and sacrifice for others.

 Families are the foundation of a good society. When families are healthy, the community as a whole is healthy. When families are stable, then schools, businesses, churches and governments are also stable. Good families create good citizens.

We live in a world in which family life is under extreme pressure resulting in negative consequences throughout our society. At this point, the problem may seem too massive for any one of us to resolve. However, there is something each of us can do. By attending to the needs of our own families, we can strengthen society as a whole. That means being the best father and husband or wife and mother you can be. It means loving your children and nurturing them to the best of your ability. It means being a good and obedient son or daughter. Those small daily efforts to strengthen our families will have positive ripple effects throughout the society as a whole.

God wants us to live in peace with one another. He wants all of us to enjoy the natural resources of the world He created. The first step to lasting peace and justice in our world is to acknowledge Him alone as God and to refuse to put money, power or pleasure in His place. The second step is to protect and strengthen marriage and family life. These Ten Commandments, though carved in stone, still have relevance in today’s digital world because God’s word never passes away. If we put that word into practice, we will begin to see a world filled with justice, peace and goodwill.

Jesus Flips Out

 

 Because Jesus is a human being as we are, we can expect to see the full range of human emotions in Him. When His friend Lazarus dies, we see Him weep. As He is about to be arrested in the garden, we see Him torn by anxiety. We see Him experience disappointment as He is betrayed by Judas and denied by Peter. We also see Him rejoice when people come to believe in Him.

And we see Him get angry.

Last Sunday’s gospel is one of the most perplexing in all of Scripture. It goes against our image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd. We cannot understand how this gentle and humble man could fly into such a rage. How could Jesus, who was perfectly sinless, act in such a seemingly violent manner?

 A little information about the customs of the time might help us to understand better what made Jesus react as He did.

 The Temple in Jerusalem was the center of all Jewish worship in Jesus’ day. It was there that the people offered sacrifices to thank God for some blessed event such as the birth of a child or a fruitful harvest. It was also where they went to ask for forgiveness of their sins. The animals used in those sacrifices were sheep, oxen and doves. Because many of the pilgrims to the Temple were traveling long distances, it was less expensive to buy the animals in Jerusalem than to have to bring them from their native land. Also the animals had to be perfect with no blemish. Imagine bringing an animal all the way to Jerusalem only to find out that, when it is examined at the Temple, it had an imperfection that would keep it from being used as a sacrifice? By buying the animal at the Temple, the pilgrims could be sure that they were without blemish.

 As so frequently happens, those who sold animals at the Temple began to take advantage of the people coming there by overcharging them. They would also bribe those who would examine the animals to make sure that any sheep, oxen or doves brought in from the outside would be deemed unworthy for the sacrifice. Then they would have to buy them from the Temple at a higher price. The same was true of the money changers who offered less in exchange for foreign coins than banks outside of the Temple.

 This situation outraged Jesus. Hardworking people who made the sacrifice to come to Jerusalem for the feast to worship God were being taken advantage of by unscrupulous men. And He would stand for it no longer. He would not allow the poor to be exploited for profit or to be kept from worshiping in the Temple. So He did something about it. He put an end to the unjust situation and He called the authorities to task for their corrupt behavior.

 

Rebuild My Church

 

When Saint Francis of Assisi first started on the path of holiness, he wasn't sure what God wanted from him. One day, he found an old church that had been abandoned and was falling apart. It was called the Church of San Damiano. He poked through the ruins and found half buried in the dirt a beautifully painted cross. He pulled it from the ground, propped it up against some rocks and began meditating on it. As he entered deeper and deeper into prayer, he heard Jesus speak to him from the cross. "Francis", our Lord said, "rebuild my Church which you see has fallen into ruins." 

Francis assumed that Jesus was speaking about the church of San Damiano. So he began gathering stones to rebuild the abandoned building. Seeing his efforts, others began to join him. However, soon young Francis came to understand that Jesus did not mean that he wanted him to rebuild the church building made of stones but to build up the Church which is the People of God. And so he gathered together the men who had been helping him and started the Franciscan order dedicated to living Jesus' teaching in the fullest way possible in poverty and joyful witness to the good news. 

Francis learned from his experience that what Jesus wanted from him was not so much to renovate buildings but to renovate minds and hearts through the power of the gospel.

 In this Sunday's gospel,  the temple leaders fall under the same misunderstanding that Saint Francis did. When they asked Jesus what right he had to clear the moneychangers from the temple, he responded with something of a riddle: "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it up in three days." Like Saint Francis of Assisi, the people thought he was talking about the temple building. But Jesus was talking about his body which will rise from the dead three days after he is crucified. 

Jesus is the new temple. He is the new lamb of sacrifice. His body is the place we worship and the offering we make to God for our sins. Like Francis, Jesus will rebuild the temple, but not with stones. He will rebuild it with people, the people who believe in him, follow him and live as he lived. We are the new temple.

Each of us is called to help Jesus rebuild the Church which is his body. Like the different parts of the body, all of us will have a different role in the Church's mission of preaching the good news. But one thing is true for each and every one of us no matter what our station in life may be. Each of us is called to build up the Church by living a holy life. 

A Transfigured Humanity

 

 There are many ways that God could have chosen to save us. But He chose to send His Son to take on a human nature, die and then rise from the dead. Why did He choose such a difficult means? Saint Paul gives us a hint in last Sunday’s second reading: “He who did not spare his own Son but handed him over for us all, how will he not also give us everything else…” The Father sent the Son to suffer and die to demonstrate the extent of His love for us. The Son of God became man so that we could see and experience for ourselves the love of God.

 Not only is God’s love shown through Jesus Christ, but, by becoming man, He transforms our human nature. All who accept this love of God into their hearts are permanently changed. We no longer live for ourselves but for the One who died and rose for us.

We see this awesome reality on display in last Sunday’s gospel. Jesus is “transfigured” in front of Peter, James and John. The glory He has as the eternal Son of God shines through His human body. From now on, human beings can reveal the glory of God through His love at work within us. This is the profoundest meaning of salvation- not just that we can get into heaven after we die but that even now we can experience God’s presence bringing about real transformation leading us from self-centeredness to generosity, from indifference to charity, and from resentment to joy. All this takes place in those who welcome God’s love into their hearts through faith in Jesus Christ.

 When Peter, James and John came down from the mountain, Jesus instructed them to keep what they had witnessed to themselves until after “the Son of Man had risen from the dead.” Well, friends, Jesus has been raised from the dead. It is now time for us to bear witness to Him.

For You And Me

 

 It is one of the most well-known and popular verses in all of the New Testament. Fans hold up signs with this verse on posters during sporting events. Athletes write it on their uniforms.

 It is from the gospel of John chapter 3 verse 16: " For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever should believe in Him may have eternal life.

Because this verse is so well known, its power and meaning can sometimes be lost on us. So let us listen to it again:

 God loved you and me so much that He gave His Son to save us.

God saw how lost we were and what danger we were in because of our sin. He loved us so much that He refused to leave us in such a state. To rescue us, He sent not only prophets and other people of faith, but He sent His Son. And He sent Him not only to teach us, but ultimately to suffer a cruel death for us. He loved us so much that He did not spare His only Son to save us. It is an awesome thought that the God who created the universe with all its wonders would care so much about you and me who have so often gone astray and betrayed Him. Yet God shows how great His love for us is through Christ Jesus our Lord.

 It is important for us to understand exactly what we mean when we say that Jesus is the Son of God. He is not simply a good man who obeyed God and helped others. He is not merely a powerful prophet and wonder-worker. When we call Jesus, “Son of God”, we are saying that He is God. That is what we mean when in the creed we say that Jesus is “consubstantial” with the Father. We are saying that He shares the same nature with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Like them, He existed from all eternity. Along with the Father and the Holy Spirit, He created the world. Whatever we can say about God, we can also say about Jesus.

That is why God the Father proclaims in last Sunday's gospel account of the Transfiguration, “This is my Beloved Son. Listen to Him.” When Jesus speaks, it is God Himself speaking. When Jesus heals, it is God Himself healing. And to bring it up to our day, when we receive the Body of Christ in Communion, we are receiving God Himself.

 Therefore, when God gives us His only Son to save us, He is giving Himself. He is giving all that He has to give. He has nothing else left to give us.