Daily Retreat 01/14/09
2009 Jan 14 Wed: Ordinary Weekday
Heb 2: 14-18/ Ps 104(105): 1-2. 3-4. 6-7. 8-9/ Mk 1: 29-39
From today’s readings: “Because He Himself was tested through what He suffered, He is able to help those who are being tested.... The Lord remembers His covenant for ever.... Rising very early before dawn, He left and went off to a deserted place, where He prayed.”
The Hinge of Salvation
Tertullian, one of the great writers of the patristic age, remarked that “The flesh is the hinge of salvation.” This motto is often invoked as a summary of the arguments in defense of the Incarnation of Christ, His bodily Resurrection, and the general resurrection of the body at the end of time.
Many heresies have arisen which denied, compromised, or mitigated these truths of our faith. At times, the temptation even lures ardent Christians to “spiritualize” the historicity of the Gospel details about Christ’s Incarnation, birth, human life, passion, death, and bodily resurrection and ascension.
But this is the bottom line: if Jesus did not fully share our human nature, He could not have been our Redeemer, the One who, on behalf of all mankind, presented to God the Father the atoning sacrifice which reconciled humanity to divinity. These verses of the Letter to the Hebrews are particularly clear on this point, which is why you and I can turn, in all of our human weaknesses, to the our merciful and faithful high priest who became like us in every way but sin.
Heb 2: 14-18/ Ps 104(105): 1-2. 3-4. 6-7. 8-9/ Mk 1: 29-39
From today’s readings: “Because He Himself was tested through what He suffered, He is able to help those who are being tested.... The Lord remembers His covenant for ever.... Rising very early before dawn, He left and went off to a deserted place, where He prayed.”
The Hinge of Salvation
Tertullian, one of the great writers of the patristic age, remarked that “The flesh is the hinge of salvation.” This motto is often invoked as a summary of the arguments in defense of the Incarnation of Christ, His bodily Resurrection, and the general resurrection of the body at the end of time.
Many heresies have arisen which denied, compromised, or mitigated these truths of our faith. At times, the temptation even lures ardent Christians to “spiritualize” the historicity of the Gospel details about Christ’s Incarnation, birth, human life, passion, death, and bodily resurrection and ascension.
But this is the bottom line: if Jesus did not fully share our human nature, He could not have been our Redeemer, the One who, on behalf of all mankind, presented to God the Father the atoning sacrifice which reconciled humanity to divinity. These verses of the Letter to the Hebrews are particularly clear on this point, which is why you and I can turn, in all of our human weaknesses, to the our merciful and faithful high priest who became like us in every way but sin.
posted by FrPitstick | 1/13/2009
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