Father’s Column 1/1/17

Posted on January 1, 2017 View all news

Laudetur Jesus Christus! Gelobt sei Jesus Christus! Sia lodato Gesù Cristo! Praised be Jesus Christ!

On behalf of all of the priests, brothers, and staff of Old St. Mary’s and Sacred Heart parishes, I wish you all a very happy New Year! I pray that this New Year brings many blessings to our parishes and our parishioners. A New Year is a time when many make new resolutions. I pray that you also make spiritual resolutions. Advent prepared us for the Nativity of the Lord, but we must never forget that the Lord also comes to visit us here in the present, each and every day. This especially occurs in our reception of Holy Communion, but hopefully the Lord will also find a worthy home in our hearts at all times. I pray that you consider attending some of our daily Masses, our adoration and devotions, our catechism. These are all offered for your benefit, so that when the Son of Man returns again, that He will find Faith on earth.

As we prepare to conclude our Christmas Octave, I present this writing from St. Athanasius. St. Athanasius was a fourth century saint, who particularly defended the divinity of Christ at the Council of Nicea. He suffered greatly for his defense of the faith, often being exiled from the diocese in which he was a bishop. I hope that you find this insightful in understanding Christ as both Son of God and Son of Mary. Have a blessed week ahead!

“The Apostle tells us: The Word took to himself the sons of Abraham, and so had to be like his brothers in all things. He had then to take a body like ours. This explains the fact of Mary’s presence: she is to provide him with a body of his own, to be offered for our sake. Scripture records her giving birth, and says: She wrapped him in swaddling clothes. Her breasts, which fed him, were called blessed. Sacrifice was offered because the child was her firstborn. Gabriel used careful and prudent language when he announced his birth. He did not speak of “what will be born in you” to avoid the impression that a body would be introduced into her womb from outside; he spoke of “what will be born from you” so that we might know by faith that her child originated within her and from her.

By taking our nature and offering it in sacrifice, the Word was to destroy it completely and then invest it with his own nature, and so prompt the Apostle to say: This corruptible body must put on incorruption; this mortal body must put on immortality.

This was not done in outward show only, as some have imagined. This is not so. Our Savior truly became man, and from this has followed the salvation of man as a whole. Our salvation is in no way fictitious, nor does it apply only to the body. The salvation of the whole man, that is, of soul and body, has really been achieved in the Word himself. What was born of Mary was therefore human by nature, in accordance with the inspired Scriptures, and the body of the Lord was a true body: It was a true body because it was the same as ours. Mary, you see, is our sister, for we are all born from Adam.

The words of Saint John: The Word was made flesh, bear the same meaning, as we may see from a similar turn of phrase in Saint Paul: Christ was made a curse for our sake. Man’s body has acquired something great through its communion and union with the Word. From being mortal it has been made immortal; though it was a living body it has become a spiritual one; though it was made from the earth it has passed through the gates of heaven.

Even when the Word takes a body from Mary, the Trinity remains a Trinity, with neither increase nor decrease. It is forever perfect. In the Trinity we acknowledge one Godhead, and thus one God, the Father of the Word, is proclaimed in the Church.” – St. Athanasius