True God AND true man

I was asked by a couple of my regular readers why I don't post the readings and the mysteries of the rosary anymore. I would like to direct their attention to the left side of the blog where I have links to both of those. And so we have Saturday's reflection:



If we sat still for fifteen minutes, we could probably list a thousand different things to be frightened of; losing our job, finding out we have cancer, someone in our family getting sick, terrorists. Some would cause minor anxiety; others would give us a full-out case of the heebie-jeebies. What then? Should we be afraid?

Jesus is with us! If He does not rebuke the winds that tear at us, it’s probably because they have something to teach us. Or perhaps He uses them to drive us into Him, the Shelter and the Rock who saves us. Jesus is there! He is not asleep—He knows who we are and what we need to become the very best persons we can be. And He will provide it. And while everything storms and blows around us, He is there at the center - a core of peace, a place of calm, my strength, my Rock of comfort, my God.

Like the Apostles in that boat on that stormy night, surely you have asked yourself the same question from time to time that they did—“ Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?" “Who is Jesus?”

We know that He is the Son of God. We know that He is savior. We know that He is present to us in the Eucharist and in the Word. We know a lot about Him, but what we think we know is utterly insufficient. We must become like the disciples.

We must learn to know Jesus as friend, companion, teacher, guide, brother, Lord and God. We come to this by slow steps, but St. Teresa of Avila taught that to know Jesus as man and God was to enter into God's embrace. To learn who God really is we must embrace the humanity of Jesus Christ. That's a powerful and hard teaching. Most of us look to Jesus as God and forget that He was also human. We don't deny it, but we seem to overlook it. Sometimes in a homily or in a book we are reminded that there were times when He was frightened, sad, angry, joyous--there were times when He experienced every facet of the human existence.

So, to come to answer the question "Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?" we must be able to embrace both the divinity and the humanity. We need to learn to love Jesus in all that He is before we can begin to truly love Him for all that He has done for us. Who then is this? He is the only One, true man and true God, the eternal before all things. And He is the One who loves us.