Man Does Not Live By Bread Alone

As far as I know, my husband and I are the only Catholics on our block.  We are surrounded by Southern Baptists --- wonderful people who would do anything for you.  Most of them attend not only church on Sunday, but also Bible study during the week.  Their faith means everything to them, and they would love for us to attend their church.  

In spite of all of this, last Sunday, as I walked out of the house to attend Mass, I experienced a profound sense of sorrow and compassion for my neighbors because I was going to receive the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ in Communion, and I knew that no matter how powerful the music and the preaching at their church that day, they would not be receiving the Eucharist.

"Man does not live by bread alone!"  What more does he need?  We all know that children who do not receive love fail to thrive, despite being fed regularly.  Even animals need love and attention, and their joy overflows when they know we love them as well as feed them.  An animal in a shelter needs a family; they need adoption, even though they are being cared for physically.

Jesus knew that we would not only crave, but need, the same love and attention He lavished on His apostles and friends while He was on earth.  We were made for adoption into a family -- the family of God.  We were made to share in the Divine Life of the Trinity, and this is what He died to give us.  Although fully human, He also fully lived the Divine Life -- the love and fellowship and joy of the Father and the Holy Spirit.  We were designed for the same experience -- knowing ourselves to be the "beloved," and receiving the joy of adoption:  "Son, all that I have is yours!"

How is it possible for man, who lives exteriorly, to enter into the divine presence and to enjoy the love of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit?  Christ "gave Himself" as our health, as our life.  He put to death on the cross our human nature alienated from fellowship with God, in order to rise as a New Creation -- a man risen from the dead -- and able to enter into Love.  In the Eucharist, we receive -- become one with -- the Risen Christ.  He does not become like we are, but instead, He gradually transforms our mortal bodies into His Risen Body.  

As we die to sin, we are transformed "from glory to glory," able to experience the same fellowship of the Father that He experienced in His mortal body.  He is the only - begotten Son; we are "sons by adoption."  The bread that He gives us is our very life -- not only our physical lives, but our spiritual, emotional, mental, psychological lives.  We experience joy because we have been accepted -- adopted-- into a Family.  We are able to love others as Jesus loves them because they too have been children of God. 

No matter how interesting or uninteresting our church service, it is the same Jesus who gives Himself to us at Mass.  It is His work in us, to change our mortal bodies into His glorious one, that ultimately counts.  We leave Mass changed, whether the music is good or poor, whether the sermon is fantastic or dull!  Christ Himself has become part of us; we have become part of Him!

I wish.....wish......wish with all my heart that my family, friends, and neighbors could come with me and receive this incredible Gift of Eternal LIfe -- to know the Father as the Son knows Him because the Son is in us and transforming us into His very own Person.  We live not by bread alone, but by every Word that comes forth from Him and enters into us -- and by the love and joy He communicates to us by His Presence in us!

To Know Christ Jesus

Now this is eternal life:  that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent (Jn. 17:3).

For You granted Him authority over all people that He might give eternal life to all those You have given Him (Jn. 17: 2).

If you knew Me, you would know my Father also (Jn. 8: 19).

No one has ever seen God, but God the only Son, who is at the Father's side, has made Him known (Jn. 1:18).

It is clear from the Gospel of John that once we "know" God the Father, we have "eternal life."  Clearly also, the "knowledge" Jesus refers to is not intellectual knowledge, or "knowing about" the Father, for even the religious leaders of His day knew about God --- and yet, Jesus accused them of NOT knowing either Him or the Father:  "You do not know me or my Father," Jesus replied. "If you knew me, you would know my Father also."  "You are unable to hear what I say...The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God" (Jn. 8: 19 and 43 and 47). 

In the Hebrew language, "knowledge" was equivalent to "experience," rather than to intellectual understanding alone.  This is why tasting from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was forbidden in the Garden. Our God is not opposed to intellectual pursuit; He gave us a mind which seeks understanding of the world around us and even of spiritual truth.  What He does not want us "tasting" is the experience of evil, for once we taste evil, it has a hold on us.  In fact, the image of "eating" or "tasting" forbidden fruit is exactly right:  whatever we eat enters into us and becomes part of us.  We cannot "undo" it because the experience is now part of our DNA --- and, in fact, we unwittingly and unwillingly pass it on to the next generation as part of their inheritance from us.

The only remedy for the experience of evil that has become part of us is death; it is the only way to get rid of the part of us that would control us.  St. Paul calls it "the law of sin and death that rules over (our) members, overruling the law of God within our minds" (Romans 7).  Our only hope to be free of that "law of sin and death" is to be re-created, a "new creation," no longer bound by our taste or experience of evil.

To know Christ (Savior) Jesus to be made new, to have a new birth, freed from the law of sin and death that reigns in us.  It is to Know God -- that is, to experience God the Father --- and to know (experience) ourselves as children of God.

So, of course, then the question is, "How do we KNOW Jesus Christ?"  How do we EXPERIENCE Jesus as living in us, bringing us to new life (eternal life)?  How do we KNOW God?

Jesus Himself gives us the answer in Matthew 7 and Luke 11:  Ask and it will be given to you: seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you....If you, then, ….know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?

The Holy Spirit is the key to knowing Jesus.  Jesus is the key to knowing the Father.  And knowing the Father...and Him who has been sent by the Father....is Eternal Life!

If we know nothing else in this life, our salvation depends upon knowing Jesus Christ --- not as a rabbi, not as a great teacher -- but as the Source and Wellspring in us of eternal life.  This is my prayer for my children, for my grandchildren, for my entire family, and for everyone I know  -- to know Christ Jesus and to taste the joy of eternal life, even now, in this lifetime and forever in heaven.

Who Do You Say That I Am?

(With Apologies to C.S. Lewis)

Recently someone said to me, "I believe in Jesus as a rabbi."  Because we were in the midst of another topic, I did not interrupt the conversation to say, "I'm sorry!" or "That's too bad."  And yet...the omission still haunts me.  I cannot think of anything more important to talk about, or any conversation more vital than this one.  

Every one of us has the right to be wrong or to be unenlightened on any topic, and still to be loved with our whole hearts and minds.  And this, it seems to me, is what we are saying to Jesus when we consider Him "a good man" or a worthy Rabbi:  I love you with my whole heart; no one has ever spoken as You have. Your words are spirit and truth, and I want to take them as the guide for my life.  But on this one aspect, You are mistaken.  You are not truly the Son of God come into the world.  You are a creature like the rest of us, and indeed, You and the Father will not come to dwell in us if we keep your words.

If Christ has not come to transform us by His Spirit, if He has no efficacy in us beyond His Words spoken 2000 years ago;  if it is up to us to listen to Him and to imitate Him, then we are beyond hopeless.  If the Jews could not keep the Law unto righteousness for 2000 years, how then should we think our goodness and strength is greater than theirs?  That might be the greatest arrogance of all!

As C.S. Lewis so brilliantly put it: Jesus did not give us that option -- to say that He was a good man, but mistaken in His belief that He was the Son of God.  Either He is within us today, doing the same mission given to Him by the Father --- healing, teaching, transforming us by the Spirit -- or He WAS simply another great teacher or rabbi in a long line of great teachers and rabbis.  Perhaps He was the greatest Prophet of all --- but He was still mistaken in His Divine Origin.

And why is that "too bad" if this is our belief?  Because then He has no power to transform us by His Presence in us.  His Resurrection Life in us is ineffective, and His Words in us have no power to effect what they say.  Like all men, we are the most hopeless of creatures, because then it is entirely up to us to pull ourselves up by the bootstraps and DO the things He said to us --- and if there is any truth in the world, it is simply that we have in ourselves no power to carry out the things we know we should do.

St. Paul said it well in Romans 7:  in my mind, I agree with the law, but in my body, the very thing I say I will do is the thing I do not do, and the thing I say I will not do is the thing I end up doing after all.  Unhappy man that I am!  Who will release me from the power of sin and death that reigns in my body?  ……..   Praise be to God, it has been done in me!  The Spirit of God has released me from the law of sin and death and put a new law in my members...the law of God!  Now I am a new creature, no longer subject to the law of sin and death.   (paraphrased and combined -- but read Romans 7 and 8).

If Jesus Christ is just a rabbi with wise words, He does not have the power today to make new creatures of us, capable of DOING the things of the Spirit and becoming sons of God, therefore making null and void all the words of the New Testament!  There is no Holy Spirit dwelling within us to overcome sin and death, and we are the most miserable of men, for our faith is founded upon our own power to make ourselves "good."  

O unhappy men that we are if Jesus is a Rabbi and not the Son of God!