Thursday of the
Fifth Week of Lent
(Genesis 17:3-9; John 8:51-59)
The charismatic heretic of the fourth century Arius had
the same problem which vexes the Jews in today’s gospel. If God is infinite, he argued, then he could
not become incarnate in a singular subject.
This, he claimed, would be like putting a mountain into a box. Therefore, Arius concluded, Jesus must have
been created like all other beings and then raised to divine status by God’s special
indulgence. In the gospel reading the
Jews critique Jesus as coming to a similar erroneous conclusion when he claims,
“Before Abraham came to be, I AM.” The
Jews think that Jesus is identifying himself with the eternal “I AM” when he is
obviously a creature born in time.
Recently Fr. Robert Barron, one of today’s gifted theologians,
published an essay which can be used to explain how Arius and the Jews are
mistaken. Like his great predecessors Saints
Augustine, Anselm, and Thomas Aquinas, Fr. Barron understands God not as just the
highest being but qualitatively different from all other beings so that he
cannot be compared to any other. We have
glimpses of who God is through Jesus, but His nature is really beyond human
understanding. It is only because God has revealed it that we can say He became
human. Again how this happens is beyond reckoning.
God became human in Jesus so that humans can become like God. Knowing ourselves as sinners, this may seem incredible
although the saints provide us a glimmer of hope. Jesus’ death and resurrection has given them
the grace to become holy. The same
Easter mystery will sanctify us.
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