JESUS CHRIST,
THE PERFECT HUMAN
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
In this second Pastoral Letter, I want to
discuss something that many people find very challenging and controversial. But
let me first, on this feast of the Holy Family, wish you the continuing joys of
Christmas. Since becoming your bishop a few weeks ago, I have been visiting our
priests. I thank God for all the wonderful priests we have and for their
inspiring love and service of Jesus and his Church. I thank God too for the
many beautiful churches in our diocese and not least for you, the People of
God, for your perseverance in faith and Christian discipleship in these
difficult times. As we enter the New Year 2013, I urge you, in the words of
today’s Second Reading, often to “think of the love that the Father has
lavished upon us by letting us be called God’s children.”[i]
The context of this Pastoral Letter is
two-fold. First, the Year of Faith, in which I want to explore the articles of
the Creed. Today, let us consider the second article: “I believe in one Lord
Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God.”[ii]
Jesus Christ is Divine. He is God the Son. He is the Second Person of the
Blessed Trinity, or to use that daringly non-Scriptural term, “consubstantial
with the Father”. This is an important doctrine to teach today. For many would
acknowledge Jesus to be a great religious leader, a Prophet and teacher, a good
and holy man. But in fact He is infinitely greater: He is God the Word. When
Jesus speaks, it is God speaking. This changes everything. In this Year of
Faith, it would be good to review our prayer and catechesis to ensure it
reflects the fullness of this truth. We should also study afresh the Creed and
its origins[iii]
so we can understand better the Church’s teaching and why Jesus Christ is the
only Way to salvation.
The second context of this Letter is
today’s feast of the Holy Family, which presents us with the humanity of
Christ: that he became incarnate “for us and for our salvation”. Or to
paraphrase St. Leo, “He came down from heaven that we might go up to heaven”[iv].
In taking on human nature, Jesus also took on a human history and a human
culture. He was brought up in Nazareth in the home of Mary and Joseph[v].
Mary, His mother, taught him his prayers and the religious traditions of his
people. Joseph, as a father, gave him a trade and initiated him into the
society of the day. We recall all of this in the Joyful Mysteries of the
Rosary, which it would be good to recite every day during the Christmas season.
You might also consider reading the new book by Pope Benedict: “Jesus of
Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives”[vi].
So the Creed affirms that Jesus Christ is
truly divine, God from God; but it also states that He is the New Adam, the Perfect
Human.[vii]
To say this today is highly controversial. If in the fourth century it was the
doctrine about how Jesus could be divine yet human, today the hot-button issue
is what it means to be human. Indeed, most of the big debates in our society
revolve around two matters: sex and authority. What is the truth about human
sexuality? And who can tell me how to live my life?
In 1968, at the height of the Sixties, Pope
Paul VI wrote an Encyclical Letter that then and now many Catholics find
difficult. He repeated the traditional teaching of the Church, based on the
natural law and confirmed by revelation, that sexual intercourse is an integral
act for love and for life, and that these two aspects of sexuality – love and
life - cannot be divorced[viii].
Humanae Vitae was a prophetic document.
Pope Paul spoke of catastrophic consequences for society and culture if these
two ends of marriage were split. 45 years on, we can see what he meant in such
things as the reduction of sex to a leisure activity, the trafficking of people
for prostitution and pornography, broken family relationships, and the
explosion of addictive behaviours leading to despair, shame and guilt[ix].
As Catholics, we believe in the natural way of life.
We believe that the purpose of sexual intercourse is to express the love
between a man and a woman, a love which, within the permanent commitment of
marriage, is open to being fruitful to life.[x] This is the way to lasting
happiness and fulfilment, even if to become chaste - that is, to develop a
mature and fully integrated sexuality, as a single person or a married couple -
involves a life-long struggle and “apprenticeship in self-mastery”[xi].
To help us, Jesus calls us to be his disciples, and offers us the healing balm
and the strength we need, above all in confession and Holy Communion.
Jesus Christ is the way to personal happiness and authentic
humanism. Sadly, the teaching of Humanae Vitae about sexual morality and
family values has become something of an ‘elephant in the room’ that no-one
seems to mention. In this Year of Faith then, I would like to invite everyone
to discover again the Church's wonderful vision of love and life, as expounded
in the Catechism. I would also like to ask all families, whatever their form
or circumstances, to think about developing a deeper and richer Catholic ethos
in the home, so as to give a clearer witness to contemporary culture. For
instance, why not spend an evening together as a family, occasionally switch
off the computer, make the Sign of the Cross on entering the house, adopt a
communal work of justice and charity, or keep special the fast-days and
feast-days? I am sure you will think of many other ways of preserving our
Catholic distinctiveness.
In this Mass of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and
Joseph, let us thank God for our own families, and pray for them. Let us pray
for those who struggle to live a chaste life in imitation of Christ. Let us
pray for families who are struggling or who have suffered tragedy and pain. And
let us pray for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit on our land. Like Mary and
Joseph who found Jesus in the Temple, may the people of England find their way
to salvation and happiness in Jesus Christ, true God and true Man, ever present
and active in his Church. Indeed, in this Year of Faith, may the Spirit lead us
all to the living waters that stream from the Heart of Jesus, burning with love
for us.
In Corde Iesu,
+
Philip
Bishop of Portsmouth
[i] I John 3: 1. This is the second reading given in the alternative
set of readings for optional use in Year C.
[iii] see Catechism of the
Catholic Church. Second Edition (Rome, Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2000)
422-455; Compendium of the Catechism of
the Catholic Church (London, CTS 2006) 81f and YOUCAT Youth Catechism of the Catholic Church (London, CTS 2010)
71f
[iv] Cf. St. Leo Sermo 6 In Nativitate
Domini 2-3, 5 (PL 54, 213-216). This constitutes the Second Reading in the
Office of Readings for 31st December.
[vi] Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives (New York, Image 2012)
[x] John Paul II Gratissimam Sane
(Letter to Fanilies) 7-8, available online at www.vatican.va (December
2012)
2 comments:
Brilliant!
Thanks so much for posting this.
Thanks for posting this. Heroic preaching! More of the same please Bishop Egan.
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