Day 25. Deeper Into Jesus
Christ, the final Adam, by the revelation of the mystery of the Father and His love, fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear.
Gaudium et Spes 22
“Who are you?” The question was put to Jesus throughout his public life. Often enough, people thought they already knew the answer. The problem was that they were content with shallow labels and partial explanations: the carpenter’s son, the miracle worker, the remarkable teacher. To people like this Jesus said, “you think you know me and also know where I am from. Yet I did not come on my own.... I know because I am from him, and he sent me” (Jn. 7:28, 29).
Who is this “him” from whom Jesus comes? Those who pressed him for an answer were looking for a human explanation for his origins; a biological parent; a family name and tribe to connect him with. Yet Jesus speaks of his divine origins when he answers their questions.
“They said to him, ‘Where is your father?’ Jesus answered, ‘You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.’ …So they said to him, who are you?’... [Jesus responds] the one who sent me is true, and what I heard from him I tell the world.’ They did not realize that he was speaking to them of the Father” (Jn. 8:19, 27).
Everything Jesus said and did during his days on earth was in reference to his Father in heaven. Scripture says of Christ that he was “fully aware that the Father had put everything into his power and that he had come from God and was returning to God” (Jn. 13:3). Tradition elaborates that Jesus is “God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God, Consubstantial with the Father.” In his own words, Jesus explained, “If you know me then you will also know my Father,” (Jn. 14:7) and, “whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (Jn. 14:9).
About his death he prophesied that, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM, and that I do nothing on my own, but I say only what the Father taught me. The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always do what is pleasing to him” (Jn. 8:28). So Jesus’ answer to the question, “Who are you?” is simply this: I am the Son of God the Father.
To the follow-up question, “What are you doing here?” Jesus had a similar response. “I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me” (Jn. 6:38). Jesus’ work was to imitate his Father. “My Father is at work until now, so I am at work.... Amen, amen I say to you, a son cannot do anything on his own but only what he sees his father doing....” (Jn. 5:17,19, 20). Benedict XVI says of Jesus that “his oneness with the Father’s will is the foundation of his life. The unity of his will with the Father’s will is the core of his very being” [1]. This relationship between Father and Son bore no signs of forced obedience or joyless subservience. Jesus was no puppet. The Father was no taskmaster. Instead, we hear a deep, trusting and affectionate intimacy in all their interactions. “You are my beloved son,” the Father said to Jesus on several occasions, “with whom I am well pleased” (Mk. 1:11, Lk. 9:35, Jn. 12:27-28).
More than any comfort this world could offer, Jesus yearned to be with his heavenly Father. It is recorded that he often spent hours – even whole nights – alone in prayer with the Father (Mk. 1:35; Lk. 5:16; 6:12). In the hours leading up to his crucifixion, he spoke with anticipation of their imminent reunion in heaven. “But now I am coming to you,” Jesus prayed to the Father, “I speak this in the world so that they may share my joy completely” (Jn. 17:13). To the disciples he urged, “...rejoice that I am going to the Father” (Jn. 14:28).
What emerges for us in these passages is an image of the Savior’s inner life. Jesus knows himself. He understands his origins and his purpose. All he says and does is in reference to his relationship with God the Father. He makes frequent reference to this relationship – especially at the most critical moments of his life. “Father,” Jesus breathes from the cross, “into your hands I commend my spirit” (Lk. 23:46).
On what, then, did Jesus found his Sense of Self? He stood on his identity as the Son of God. What was his Source of Love? It was his Father in heaven. What was his Hope of Happiness? Short-term, in daily life, Jesus delighted in doing the Father’s will: “my food is to do the will of the one who sent me” (Jn. 4:34). Long term, as he approached death, Jesus yearned for the Kingdom of Heaven, not as a place of pearly gates or puffy clouds, but as the privileged place where he would find communion, eternal intimacy with his Father.
The Church teaches that “in Christ and through Christ, God has revealed himself fully to mankind and has definitively drawn close to it; at the same time, in Christ and through Christ man has acquired full awareness of his dignity, of the heights to which he is raised, of the surpassing worth of his own humanity, and of the meaning of his existence” [2]. Elsewhere the Church teaches, “Christ…fully reveals man to man himself” [3]. In listening to Jesus describe his own foundations, we uncover the rock on which our shaky, three-legged tables should also stand.
In the coming days, we will try to understand these three essential characteristics of the Cornerstone. So that, like Jesus, our Sense of Self will become firmly founded on our identity as children, daughters and sons, of God. That like Jesus, our Source of Love will be recognized as flowing abundantly from the heart of God the Father. That like Jesus, our Hope of Happiness will be found in embracing God’s will and in yearning for heaven.
Novena Prayer
Jesus says: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”
Pier Giorgio responds: Our life, in order to be Christian, has to be a continual renunciation, a continual sacrifice. But this is not difficult, if one thinks what these few years passed in suffering are, compared with eternal happiness where joy will have no measure or end, and where we shall have unimaginable peace.
Let us pray: Blessed Pier Giorgio, teach me that I must be able to mourn if I will be able to rejoice. Show me how to face my sorrow, and not avoid it or pretend that it does not exist. Help me to enter into any present sorrow, so that my soul can empty itself and be filled with God’s peace.
Blessed Pier Giorgio, I ask for your intercession in obtaining from God, Who is our Consoler, all the graces necessary for my spiritual and temporal welfare. I confidently turn to you for help in my present need: (in your own words, ask the Father to enable you to see yourself in his eyes, with his loving gaze).
A Book of Prayers in Honor of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, by Rev. Timothy E. Deeter
Make it My Own
Daily Discernment Workbook
A QUOTE TO NOTE
1. Pope Benedict XVI wrote…
The communion of Jesus with the Father “is the true center of his personality; without it, we cannot understand him at all, and it is from this center that he makes himself present to us still today.”
Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, tr. by Adrian J. Walker, New York, Doubleday, 2007, p. xiv
How is this true? How does Jesus make himself present to us today through his union with the Father?
BREAK OPEN YOUR BIBLE
2. Father Familiar
Jesus reveals the depth of his love for the Father through the many times we see him turning to God in prayer. Read the following passages describing Jesus’ prayer and draw lessons from the passages.
Mark 1:35, Luke 6:12, Matthew 14:23 One lesson these passages teach about Jesus and the Father…
Luke 10:17-21 One lesson this passage teaches about Jesus and the Father…
John 11:41-44 One lesson this passage teaches about Jesus and the Father…
John 17:1-8 One lesson this passage teaches about Jesus and the Father…
3. Jesus’ Pillars Revealed by the Foe.
Satan strikes at the footing where Jesus stands, as Genesis foretold, “He will strike at your head, while you strike at his heel" (Gen. 3:15). In the temptation in the desert, described in the gospel of Matthew, we see the devil doing just this: attacking our Lord’s foundations. By noting the devil’s strategy, then, we can identify where Jesus placed his Sense of Self, his Source of Love and his Hope of Happiness. Can you see how each of the three temptations relates to Jesus’ pillars? For convenient notation, the full passage is provided below.
Matthew 4:1-11
1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. 2 He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry.
First Temptation:
3 The tempter approached and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread."
4 He said in reply, "It is written: 'One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.'"
For Reflection: Jesus’ Sense of Self is his identity as Son of God.
How does this temptation attempt to undermine that identity? Consider self-reliance vs. reliance on the Father’s provision.
Second Temptation:
5 Then the devil took him to the holy city, and made him stand on the parapet of the temple, 6 and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written:
'He will command his angels concerning you and 'with their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone.'"
7 Jesus answered him, "Again it is written, 'You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.'"
For Reflection: Jesus’ Source of Love is God the Father.
How does this temptation attempt to compromise his relationship with the Father? How does testing God show distrust?
Third Temptation:
8 Then the devil took him up to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence, 9 and he said to him, "All these I shall give to you, if you will prostrate yourself and worship me."
10 At this, Jesus said to him, "Get away, Satan! It is written:
'The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve.'"
11 Then the devil left him and, behold, angels came and ministered to him.
For Reflection: Jesus’ Hope of Happiness is doing the Father’s will and being with the Father in glory along with the all the blessed he came to save – that is, the Kingdom of Heaven.
How does this temptation of earthly kingdoms offer a shortcut to the establishment of the Kingdom of God?
What’s wrong with the shortcut?
Conclude with
“Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son,
and to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be.
World without end, Amen.”
[1] Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, Vol. I, tr. by Adrian J. Walker, New York, Doubleday, 2007, p. 149
[2] Redemptor Hominis, 11
[3] Gaudium et Spes 22
All Scripture quotes from the New American Bible, unless otherwise specified