Parable of the Rich Fool. Luke 12:16-21
Sponsored
Catholic365 is sponsored by
Road to Purity
CHAPTER THREE: JESUS CHRIST
We pray, “I believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages…begotten not made.”
Only-begotten is a very difficult phrase. In modern English, to “beget” is to become the father of. In the early translations, all through the Old Testament, we hear the word begat: In the old language of the King James Version, we hear, “Jacob begat Joseph, husband of Mary…” In the New American Bible and most newer versions, we read, “Jacob became the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary” (Matthew 1:16). So Jesus Christ is God’s only-begotten Son. Begetting, being the father of a child, has the meaning of pouring life into another. God the Father poured His life into His Son from all eternity, born of the Father before all ages. And later we will profess that He was also begotten by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. Christ was eternally begotten of the Father, and Jesus was His only-begotten Son, born of Mary.
Later we say, “Begotten not made.” Although not a Catholic himself, C.S. Lewis has been often quoted by Catholic theologians. He explains:
To beget is to become the father of; to create is to make. And the difference is this. When you beget, you beget something of the same kind as yourself. A man begets human babies…But when you make, you make something of a different kind from yourself…What God begets is God… What God creates is not God. (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, p. 75)
So Jesus Christ was begotten, not made. Jesus Christ was poured forth from God the Father; He is not a creature. He existed from all time, He is infinite.
We pray, “God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God.” We see in St. John's Gospel, “For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son also to have life in Himself” (John 5:26). God the Father, the very spark of life itself, shares His eternal light with the Son. In our language, the words “sun,” and “Son” of God, both give us light. One illuminates our world, and One gives eternal Light to our souls.
St. John proclaims:
What came to be through Him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1: 3-5)
Further, we believe that God the Father “Dwells in unapproachable light” (1 Timothy 6:16), and He has poured His full divinity into His Son.
Unapproachable light; what a vivid image. There was one Easter morning when my husband and I were on a hilltop in Pennsylvania for the Easter sunrise service. I took a picture just as the sun broke the horizon. It was that exact moment when the brilliant rays of the morning sun shattered the night. Later when I looked at the photos, every single one of them had a small round black dot over the center of the sun. The sunlight was too bright for the camera, and the camera itself could not process the brilliance. There, I thought to myself in awe, is the unapproachable light of the Resurrection!
We now pray, “Consubstantial with the Father.” We used to say “One in being with the Father.” Consubstantial means “of one substance.” Early in Church history, there was much debate and confusion about Jesus’ Divinity. In what way was He God? Nicholas Senz explains:
The Council of Nicaea helped to repair a Christian world riven over…Was the Son of the same substance…of the Father, or of a similar substance? We hear that truth…repeated once more today in the revised language of the Creed…that Jesus is ‘consubstantial’ with the Father. (Senz, paragraph 7:1)
Our bishops explain in the Catechism:
The Church thus confesses that Jesus is inseparably true God and true man. He is truly the Son of God, Who, without ceasing to be God and Lord, became a man and our brother…Jesus Christ possesses two natures, one Divine and the other human, not confused, but united in the one person of God's Son. (USCCB, Catechism, Number 469 and 481)
Jesus is fully Divine and fully human, a great mystery of faith. A personal memory of mine was watching a priest preparing the table for Holy Communion, and as he poured the wine into the chalice, he said, “This is Christ’s Divinity.” Then he poured a little water in the chalice and said, “This is Christ’s humanity. Now I want you to take the water out of the wine.” We were dumbfounded by the simplicity of the explanation. The humanity and Divinity of Christ are not oil and water, they are like water and wine. Jesus the Christ and Jesus the man are inseparable.
We say, “Through Him all things were made.” St. John says of Jesus:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things came to be through Him, and without Him, nothing that was made came to be. (John 1:1-3)
Jesus is eternal with the Father; He was not created. God poured His life into Jesus from the beginning of time. He is not a creature. He has all the same life force of God, and He is Co-Creator. In Genesis, we hear, “And God said, ‘Let us make man in Our image, after Our likeness’” (Genesis 1:26). Clearly, God was speaking in the plural, as verified through ancient manuscripts. This is another one of the greatest mysteries of faith, how the Lord is both the Jesus of our world, and also the Christ, the Co-Creator of all that is.
In some parts of this chapter, I have quotations without comment, because really, when faced with the truth about Jesus Christ, I am often speechless.
When all is said and done, I hope I am not speechless when Jesus Christ looks into my eyes and says “Who do you say that I am?” (Luke 9:20)
I CAN ONLY IMAGINE by Bart Milliard and MercyMe
I can only imagine
What it will be like
When I walk by Your side
I can only imagine
What my eyes would see
When Your face is before me
I can only imagine. Yeah
Surrounded by Your glory
What will my heart feel?
Will I dance for You Jesus
Or in awe of You, be still?
Will I stand in Your presence
Or to my knees, will I fall?
Will I sing hallelujah?
Will I be able to speak at all?
I can only imagine
I can only imagine
I can only imagine
When that day comes
And I find myself
Standing in the Son
I can only imagine
When all I will do
Is forever, forever worship You
I can only imagine. Yeah
I can only imagine
Surrounded by Your glory
What will my heart feel?
Will I dance for you Jesus
Or in awe of You be still?
Will I stand in your presence
Or to my knees will I fall?
Will I sing hallelujah?
Will I be able to speak at all?
I can only imagine, yeah
I can only imagine
Surrounded by Your glory
What will my heart feel?
Will I dance for you Jesus
Or in awe of You be still?
Will I stand in your presence
Or to my knees, will I fall?
Will I sing hallelujah?
Will I be able to speak at all?
I can only imagine, yeah
I can only imagine
I can only imagine, yeah-yeah
I can only imagine
I can only imagine
I can only imagine
I can only imagine
When all I will do
Is forever, forever worship You
I can only imagine
Reflections for Journaling:
Which phrase about Jesus Christ really stands out to you?
What does it mean to you that Jesus was begotten not made?
What does it mean to you that God the Father passed on His Divine likeness to Jesus Christ?
What does it mean to you that Jesus is One in being with the Father?
Jesus Christ is God from God and Light from Light. What does it mean to you that God is unapproachable light?
Jesus is inseparably true God and true man. What does this great mystery mean to you?
Jesus is eternal, as is the Father. He was present at the moment of Creation. What does this mean to you?
REFERENCES
Lewis, C.S., Mere Christianity, online version, p. 75. Accessed 7-7-2023. https://www.dacc.edu/assets/pdfs/PCM/merechristianitylewis.pdf
Senz, Nicholas, Catholic Digest, “A Short History of the Nicene Creed,” https//www.catholicdigest.com/amp/faith/prayer/a short history of the nicene creed/
USCCB Catechism online.
https://www.usccb.org/sites/default/file/flipbooks/catechism/
Loreen Marie Derry is a Roman Catholic who worshiped in Charismatic Roman Catholic communities as a teen and in college. She earned a Bachelor's degree double major in Theology and Psychology from the Franciscan University of Steubenville, and Master's in Clinical Psychology from Slippery Rock University. For a time, she lived a life of wandering in faith, and then she and her husband found spiritual renewal in a Charismatic Protestant church that was very Spirit-filled and focused on the Word of God. In 2018, Loreen and her husband found a home at Ascension Catholic Community in Melbourne, FL. In 2020, Loreen walked beside her husband as a sponsor in the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults. Being so inspired by this process and returning to the Church of her youth, she has continued reading theology and inspirational writings. As a result of this journey of faith, Loreen now writes devotionals, articles about faith, and poetry reflections. The focus of her works are spiritual reading for for new and renewed Catholic followers of Jesus Christ.
