Seize Christ
"If the Law calls them gods to whom the word of God came, and scripture cannot be set aside,how can you say that the one whom the Father has consecrated and sent into the world blasphemes because I said, 'I am the Son of God'?" Yes indeed, if God has spoken to us so that we might be called 'gods', how could the Word of God, the Word that is in God, not be God? If we have been made sharers in his nature and have become gods because God speaks to us, how could this Word, through which this gift comes to us, not be God?... As for you, you approach the Light and receive it and are counted among the children of God, but if you draw back you become dark and are counted among the children of darkness (cf. 1Thes 5,5)...
“Believe the works, so that you may realize and understand that the Father is in me and I in the Father.” The Son of God does not say “the Father is in me and I in the Father” in the same sense as we are able to do. In effect, if our thoughts are good, we are in God; if our lives are holy, God is in us. When we are sharers in his grace and enlightened by his light then we are in him and he in us. But... recognize what is proper to the Lord and what is a gift made to his servant. What is proper to the Lord is his equality with the Father, but the gift granted to his servant is to participate in the Savior.
“Then they tried to seize him.” If only they had seized him! But by faith and intellect, not so as to mock and put him to death! At this very moment, as I speak to you..., all of us, both you and I, are wanting to seize Christ. To 'seize', what does that mean? You have 'seized' when you have understood. But Christ's enemies were looking for something different. You have seized in order to possess but they wanted to seize him in order to get rid of him. And because this was how they wanted to seize him, what does Jesus do? “He escaped from their power.” They were unable to seize him because they did not have the hands of faith... We truly seize Christ if our minds grasp the Word.
| Friday, March 22, 2013 Lenten Weekday |
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