Friday, October 29, 2010

Day 1. Admonition 1a. Of The Lord's Body.

 

Day 1. Admonition 1a.

Of The Lord’s Body.

The Lord Jesus said to His disciples: “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No

man comes to the Father, but by Me. If you had known Me you would, without

doubt, have known My Father also: and from henceforth you shall know Him, and

you have seen Him. Philip said to Him: Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for

us. Jesus said to him: Have I been so long a time with you and have you not known

Me? Philip, he that sees Me sees [My] Father also. How can you say, Show us the

Father?”

1 The Father “inhabits light inaccessible,”2 and “God is a spirit,”3 and “no

man has seen God at any time.”4 Because God is a spirit, therefore it is only by the

spirit He can be seen, for “it is the spirit that quickens; the flesh profits nothing.”5

 

Francis quotes Jesus as saying “if you had known me” as in those who know Jesus know the Father, implying that those who do not know Jesus do not know His Father.

Despite his years as Jesus’ disciple, Philip seems not to have known Jesus because he does not know the Father. Jesus then tells Philip that in seeing and knowing Jesus he will both know and see the Father.

Perhaps, in analysing the Trinity as the Triune God and in attempting to organise the three persons' of God in an acceptable monotheistic form, we may miss the whole point. Namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting (our)trespasses against (us), and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:19 NASB)

 

I rather think that Francis was unknowingly leaning towards Panentheism, seeing God as both very nearby in Creation and yet much greater than it, we only need to read his Canticle of the Creatures to discern this:

There is only God whether in Jesus or the Spirit, our Deity can be seen and perceived in Jesus, and in the wind, blowing wherever it pleases (John 3:8); in the tallest trees and the deepest seas, in the hottest fire, our God is everywhere and in everything.

We shall stop with this because if we try to explain it further we return to the sticky web of Trinity

 

 

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