Jesus is Anointed at Bethany Part 1

It is interesting to note that this event of the anointing of Jesus with oil by a woman occurs in all four Gospels, even if not in exact same detail. Matthew and Mark say the event took place in the house of a certain Simon the Leper (Matt. 26:6; Mark 14:3). Luke says the event took place in the house of “one of the Pharisees,” who apparently had invited Jesus to have dinner with him (Luke 7:36). John in turn says the event occurs in the house of Lazarus, Martha and Mary (John 12:1-3). In the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, the identity of the woman is not revealed. In John however, she is revealed to be Mary, the sister of Lazarus whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Luke in any case describes her as a sinful woman who should not have been permitted to touch the body of a prophet such as Jesus (Luke 7:39). 

Another discrepancy to note in the rendering of the passage in the different gospels is that Matthew and Mark say that the woman poured the ointment on the head of Jesus (Matt. 26:7; Mark 14:3), while Luke and John both say she poured the ointment on his feet (Luke 7:38; John 12:3). The actual words used, and the characters that used them also differ from one gospel account to another. John’s Gospel in particular mentions Judas (John 12:4-6). All four gospels in any case hint at the concept of money or wages or debt, and so it is clear that finance is a central concern in this passage. This paper will treat this theme in due course.

Prior to so doing, however, it bears questioning why this particular passage should be contained in all four gospels. Perhaps it is a story that was very common in the Christian communities at the time. Perhaps women, who were a major part of the early church, felt it important to tell such a story with a central feminine character; one that shows courage and grace in her lavish anointing of the Lord; one who could serve as a model to the otherwise hesitant female penitent who, though thirsty for the draught of salvation, is too hamstrung by scrupulosity and a fear of the crowd to step forward and seek the face of the savior, Jesus Christ. Recall in this regard in any case the example of the woman with an issue of blood, who summoned up the courage to answer the question of Jesus, “Who touched me?” (Matt. 9:20-22; Mark 5: 25-34; Luke 8: 43-48). Recall as well the example of the Syrophoenecian woman, who insisted on receiving a blessing from the Lord even if she felt undeserving of it and had to defend her insistence (Mark 7:25-30; Matt. 15:21-28).

Perhaps as well, it could be that all the gospel writers considered the tale important and worth preserving. They must have discovered in it a lasting communication of the mercy of God through Christ for whomever it is that seeks it, regardless of the moral state of the person. The gesture of the woman pouring oil at the feet of Jesus was one that transcended economic concern. The woman was not thinking of herself or of her own gratification. Rather, she was interested in pleasing Jesus. She was expressing the feelings of gratitude in her heart, gratitude for her salvation. Her act was one of faith, of belief in the reality of Jesus having forgiven her sins. And in view of such great forgiveness, her showing of love in the lavish anointing was justified. This sort of love was not shown by Simon the Leper (Luke 7: 40-47). Because Simon did not feel as convicted of sin and indebtedness to God as the sinful woman did, he did not care to minster to Jesus in hospitable ways (Ibid.v44-47). 

Unique to Luke’s version of the event is the Parable of the Two Debtors, which is contained in Luke 7:41-43. The parable tells of two debtors. One owed five hundred days’ wages, and the other owed fifty, to a certain creditor who ultimately forgave both debts, seeing that the debtors were unable to repay. Jesus asked his host, Simon, which of the two debtors would love the creditor more for the favor of forgiving the debt, and Simon correctly replied that it was bound to be the one who owed more to begin with.

A Summary of the Movie, The Reluctant Saint

St Joseph of Cupertino is the protagonist of The Reluctant Saint. He is portrayed at the start of the flick as a village buffoon. Indeed the first few scenes of the movie show him leaving school for the day with his much-younger classmates, only to get himself tricked by a couple of them into picking up a scalding piece of metal. Upon being asked to graduate early by exasperated school authorities, Joseph presents his mother with a diploma and a proposal to be a carpenter like his father. His mother does not express any optimism at this proposal. She says: "Joseph, Joseph, if you could be a carpenter or a shoemaker, or a blacksmith, I would be the happiest mother; but you can't, Joseph; you can't." She recommends instead that he set his sights lower throughout life, expecting little for himself, to refrain from being disappointed. She then instructs him to mind the donkey.

 

Joseph's mother in any case has a plan. She intends to foist Joseph off on her brother, who has recently been made Father Guardian of the neighboring monastery, Martina. She invites Father Guardian and another priest to dine with her. She summons Joseph to meet with them, hoping that they can admit him to the monastery. Joseph, a bumbling idiot, spills wine on the other priest's hand in his attempt to cut up some cheese for him. He also doubts his capacity to be a good friar. Exasperated, Joseph's mother pretends to faint. Joseph is alarmed and promises to do whatever his mother asks, if that would make her recover. She makes him promise to join the monastery, and so Joseph begins his vocation as a religious man.

 

Life in the monastery is not as easy for Joseph as one would hope. He is sent to beg with the other friars, only for him to get waylaid on his return, as he stops to help a destitute woman. He is robbed of the donkey assigned to him, all the goods he successfully obtained while begging, and his own clothes are ruined. He also gets on the wrong side of a jealous inmate, who sets him up to break a 200-year-old statue. And so, on the day he receives news of his father's death, a disillusioned Father Guardian sends Joseph away from the monastery. In a letter written to his sister and borne by Joseph, Father Guardian expresses regret that he cannot continue to have Joseph in the monastery, since the lad is in short a bumbling fool. Joseph's mother reads the letter and is angry. She grabs her son and marches all the way to the monastery chapel, where the monks are at prayer. She makes quite a scene, and embarrasses her brother, the Father Guardian, by revealing some of the mistakes he made when he was younger, in an attempt to show that he is no better than his nephew, who deserves another shot at being a friar. She wins the day, and Joseph regains his position in the monastery. But he is remanded in the stables looking after the animals.

 

Subsequently, the Vicar of the Franciscan Order, an illustrious bishop, visits the monastery. He goes on his rounds of inspection and, upon reaching the stables, finds Joseph asleep on duty. He is irritated at first but, when he realizes that Joseph is asleep because he was tending two baby lambs whose mother was ill, he immediately takes a liking to Joseph. Joseph apparently reminds him of his own life as a poor peasant boy. Later that night, he sees Joseph again seated at a fire and eating chestnuts. He joins the humble friar, and they spend the entire night together, laughing and talking and eating chestnuts together. And as the bishop prepares to leave Martina, he asks that Joseph, albeit a stupid young man, be trained for the priesthood. An intelligent friar is asked to teach Joseph, but all the silly Joseph can learn is a chapter in Luke concerning the Parable of the Lost Sheep. This parable was recited earlier by the visiting bishop, while in a state of admiration for Joseph's tending the baby lambs. The friar charged with the responsibility of tutoring Joseph is consequently tired, and quits.

 

On the day of the examination for sub-diaconate, the stage of orders before priesthood, Joseph and the intelligent friar that had been instructing him go to be interviewed by a team of examiners. Everyone at the monastery expects that Joseph will fail. They expect instead that the intelligent friar will pass. Joseph is however lucky. The examiner asks him at the interview to recite the chapter from Luke concerning the Parable of the Lost Sheep, the only thing Joseph knew. He recites the chapter perfectly, and passes. The intelligent friar fails. And so, Joseph begins to train for the next stage of orders, the priesthood, which everyone is sure - except a miracle happens to change things - Joseph must fail. Again, Joseph passes by a stroke of luck. The examiner turns out to be the bishop that had visited Martina earlier and taken an especial liking to Joseph. This bishop passes the stupid friar without even asking him any question in theology. So, Joseph becomes a priest. He takes a copy of his orders to show his mother. He knocks on the door when he arrives at the house. His mother opens the door, recognizes it to be Joseph there, and slaps him across the face, thinking he has been kicked out of the monastery again. He protests and shows her the document that confirms he is actually a priest. His mother exclaims, "My son, a priest!"

 

Promptly, the next day all the villagers congregate to be blessed by the new priest. His mother calls them all together and boasts about her son, saying she saw something special in Joseph all along, even if this cannot be believed. She presents her son to the congregating villagers, so that he can bless and pray for them. Afterwards, Joseph returns to the monastery. When he arrives, he notices the face of the statue he broke a while ago stuck in a window. He kneels in front of it to pray and, as he prays, he begins to rise up in the air. A friar sees him, and runs to the refectory where the other friars are at supper and reports the issue. No one believes him. This friar subsequently reports the issue to the villagers, who congregate at the monastery to see Joseph, but they are driven away by the Father Guardian and another priest, and the friar from whom they obtained the information that Joseph could "fly" is made out to be a liar. At Fr. Joseph's first mass taking place at that moment nonetheless, all the friars, except for Father Guardian and the other priest, who are busy sending the villagers outside away, see the holy priest levitate. They rush out of the chapel to report the case to Father Guardian and this other priest.

 

So, a panel of investigation into the issue is summoned. The panel members ask Joseph many questions concerning his health and history, and ultimately decide his is a case of divine intervention. But the priest who had been with Father Guardian when the other friars saw Joseph levitate refuses to accept the panel's ruling. He claims instead that Joseph is possessed by a demon and must be exorcised. The panel agrees, and so later that night this priest conducts an exorcism on Joseph in a cove outside the monastery. He then binds the poor friar in chains, intending to leave him there till the following morning. But, as he and the other friars are making their way to the monastery, leaving Joseph bound in the cove, they hear the snap of chains and return to see Joseph levitating again, and a bright light from heaven surrounding him. The doubting priest falls on his knees in surrender to the power of truth. He admits there and then that it is in fact divine intervention causing Joseph to levitate so. He does not trouble the holy friar again. And Joseph is canonized some years after his death.

 

For many, Joseph is patron saint of students. The Movie, The Reluctant Saint, is a true story. Barring some minor historical discrepancies, the move is largely real-life. The movie was well played. The characters were very believable. The actress who played Joseph's mother for example was so believably hilarious that she easily drew a laugh or two from me. The character that played Joseph as well was so authentic that you could easily sympathize with his awkwardness and stupidity, as well as his holiness and humility. The friars, the bishop, the members of the panel, the interviewers - every character was believable. And so with regard to characterization, the movie was spot on. But not just characterization. With regard to costumes, lighting and filming, the movie was similarly superb. The director did a splendid job, indeed. I personally have seen the movie many times and, each time I see it yet again, I am impressed and intrigued.

A Teleology of Humanity

What is the most important thing in life? Clearly, it is happiness. Aristotle, whom we all agree is a wise man – I mean, who does not think Aristotle is wise? – has said that happiness is the teleological end of all humanity. Wait. Let me explain that big word, “teleology.” Teleology refers to purpose. In other words, to say that happiness is the teleological end of humanity is to mean that the purpose for which God created humanity is for all people to end up happy. And so, happiness is the most important thing. After all said and done, after the "hurly burly” of life is over, the question to ask is: Am I now happy? There is a saying in Ibo culture: “Agaracha, a guo miles.” What this means is that, after life has been lived, we are supposed to reflect on what has transpired and evaluate this against the teleological rubric of happiness. If we feel happy when we mull over our life experiences so far, then perhaps everything we did was worth it. It is probably in this sense alone that we can ethically say that “the end justifies the means.”

Are you happy? And by this I don’t mean whether you feel excited at this moment. Happiness is not a snazzy feeling that you get when something superb happens – like you win the lottery, or you get promoted at work, or your wife gives birth to a long-expected child. No. Being happy is a state of living that underlies all the transient feelings we experience or are tempted with in the course of everyday living. To borrow metaphysical language: happiness is the substance underlying the emotional accidents ranging from excitement to despondency and everything in between. We have in any case, in a previous post, defined happiness as practical epistemology plus practical ethics. So, when I ask if you’re happy, I am asking you to reflect on your life so far. Have you been living faithfully with regard to your epistemological repertoire? Have you discovered truth, and are you living according to that truth regardless of the challenges that inhere in the circumstance of so doing?

I am happy. I’ve said this in a previous post. And the reason I am happy is that I am filling up my epistemological sack each and every day, and I am taking from that sack the lessons I apply in everyday living. And so, I am in fact engaged in practical epistemology and practical ethics and, in spite of the challenges I do face each and every day, I move on with hope, faith and courage. I do not allow the negative emotions that life tempts me with to have a field day with me. I do not allow the devil to come into my spiritual house and beat me up. I surrender myself instead through endless sacrifices to the power of reason, and to faith in Christ Jesus, and in this way ward off the attacks of the devil. Indeed, I believe God when he says: “For I know the plans I have for you; plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jer. 29:11).

If you don’t feel happy, you need to re-examine your life. In any case, Plato and Socrates have said that an unreflected-upon life is not worth living. So you might as well. Ask yourself what your epistemological repertoire is. What sourced the truths you know? Are the sources of such truths valid? How did you come about the truths: authority, tenacity, research? Then, with regard to practical ethics, ask yourself if you are living faithfully according to those truths. Are you allowing the negative emotions life tempts you with to have a field day with you? Is the devil entering your emotional house and beating you up? Or are you, through sacrifices, allowing the power of reason to take effective control of your life and move you forward toward the goal of triumph, peace and happiness? With these questions, take stock of your spiritual life, and see if you cannot through this critical method consolidate your chances at happiness.

Happy people are good people. They are individuals who are living out the ideal situation of heaven on earth. I encourage you to be among their number. I encourage you to be happy. Realize that happiness is the teleological end of all humanity. Understand that it is not synonymous with accidental emotions characteristic of daily existence, but instead is the situation brought about by practical epistemology and practical ethics. Then, critically examine your life and discover if you have been living one consistent with practical epistemology and practical ethics. If you have, I congratulate you. If you have not, I exhort you to refuse to allow negative emotions deter you from following truth. Through sacrifices and a reliance on reason and faith as well, strive to be and stay happy. For your own good.

Mary

I will approach the topic of Mary from a personal point of view. There is something I call the concept of the three women, or the concept of the three mothers. I borrowed it from the story of Macbeth. You recall the three women that shared an eye. In my unique slant of the concept of the three women, I see the first woman or mother as the earth. Mother Earth is the “spouse” of God the Father (this is not Church teaching, but just a personal analogy). Mother Earth gives us our material person (Aristotle’s hylomorphism), through the agency of our parents, and provides us with all the material blessings we need to sustain our physical self. This mother inspires all the physical or carnal expressions of the human person as living in the world.

The second woman or mother is Mother Church. This is the spouse of God the Son, and this is actually Church teaching. Jesus is married to the Church, and has left her his body and blood, soul and divinity, for all time in the Eucharist. Mother Church gives us the sacraments that sustain our souls as they make their way to God. This mother inspires all the soulful or religious expressions of the human person as living in the community of saints. The third woman or mother is Mary. This is the spouse of God the Spirit. This too is Church teaching. Mary is spouse to the Holy Spirit, by whose power she conceived and bore Jesus Christ. Mother Mary gives us Jesus Christ as model and guide in our spiritual endeavor. She inspires all the spiritual or intellectual expressions of the human mind as it seeks to copy the ideal of rational propriety, including practical epistemology and ethics, of human persons living in informed society.

Thus the male principle of God the Father copulating with the female principle of Mother Earth (pure matter; pure potency) creates all there is in the universe, out of Love. Similarly, the male principle of God the Son copulating with the female principle of Mother Church imparts grace to our souls so that we can live up to the command to be “perfect as God the father is” (Matt. 5:48), and to do the will of God the Father. And the male principle of God the Holy Spirit copulating with Mother Mary, gives us the perfect model of human perfection, Jesus Christ whom, if we contemplate and emulate, we can base our thoughts, words and deeds on and so be able to live perfectly rational and fulfilled lives. 

At an ideal state, the human being operating on the level of God the Father acting in Mother Earth is of equal value as the person operating on the principle of God the Son acting in Mother Church, and that operating on the principle of God the Spirit acting in Mother Mary. If Adam and Eve had not fallen into original sin in the first place; had not allowed themselves to be deceived by the Serpent in the Garden (Gen. 3:1-20), then perhaps there would have been no need to send Jesus in the first place, because when God made Adam and Eve, he saw that they were already “good” (Gen. 1:31). But because Adam and Eve fell, and God who sees the end before the beginning, as if the end happened at the same time as the beginning, knew that at some point Jesus would have to redeem the “good” people he had made, the principle of the Son acting in Mother Church, and its concomitant principle of the Holy Spirit acting in Mother Mary has eternal significance. Again, this does not undermine the teaching of Mother Church. 

So, Mother Mary, the “third woman” – and by the way, Jesus calls Mary “woman” many times in the bible, such as during the Wedding at Cana; at the foot of the cross, and so on – is the Spouse of the Holy Spirit, the Mother of Jesus, and by that logic (since Jesus is God) the Mother of God. Mary exhorts us with regard to her son, “Do what he tells you” (John 2:5). Mary has also appeared in many apparitions, such as The Miraculous Medal, Our Lady of Victories, La Salette, Lourdes, Pontmain, Pellevoisin, and Fatima. In each of these apparitions and in many other ways she encourages us to be good, to pray for priests and to love and emulate her son. The Blessed Virgin Mary also gave us the Rosary and the Scapular, and shares with us numerous other religious habits by which we can become more fully Christian and disciples of Christ. Mary in short is a good mother to us.

Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit is the third person in the Trinity. He proceeds from the Father and the Son, as the Catechism teaches us. He is the spouse of the Virgin Mary, and it is by his power that Jesus Christ was conceived without an earthly father. 1 Cor. 12:3 says that no one can call Jesus Lord except the person is under the influence of the Holy Spirit. Some theologians have said that the Holy Spirit is the symbol of Love existing between the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit also gives us many charismatic gifts so that we can help to build up the Church, which is the Body of Christ. The Holy Spirit “lives to set us free.”

The Holy Spirit was spoken of by Jesus when the Lord told his disciples that he would send them an advocate to enlighten and embolden them. This was when he was leaving them and returning to the Father. He said that the Holy Spirit would teach them all things (John 14:26) and bear lasting witness to Christ in such a fashion that the disciples would not be afraid to bear witness in turn to Christ, before all the world. In other words, the disciples were going to form a two-step evangelism paradigm with the Holy Spirit, on behalf of all the people of God. The Holy Spirit would create the capacity in them to bring this situation about. 

The Holy Spirit comes to us in the sacraments. In Baptism, the Holy Spirit marks us with a sign of faith and places us firmly in the family of the Lord. The Holy Spirit whets our appetite for the food from Heaven, the one that nourishes and strengthens us on our road to God. The Holy Spirit always comes to us in confession to console us in our grief and guilt. Recall in this regard that we have said that guilt is to be eschewed in the concept of genuine sacrifice. God does not want us to bear the negative emotions that his son has already done away with. We are supposed to be vigilant, and to pray repeatedly for the Holy Spirit, so that he can strengthen us all the time. He comes to us as well in Holy Orders.

Holy Orders refer to the making of priests and bishops and deacons. It is by the power of the Holy Spirit, as evidenced in the laying on of hands that ministers of word and sacrament are made and positioned in service of God’s people, in such a fashion as to allow for the continued spread of the Gospel. God the Holy Spirit also comes to people that are married, so as to strengthen them in their marital vows and give them the strength to live lives of fidelity to their spouses and devotion to their children. The Holy Spirit also descends on the sick and lifts them up, when the minister lays hands on the sick in the sacrament of Anointing. It was for example by the power of the Holy Spirit that Jesus rose Lazarus, the son of the Widow of Nain, and Jairus’ daughter from the dead in the Bible stories concerning these events. The Holy Spirit in short comes to us in power in all the sacraments instituted by Christ.

The Holy Spirit participates in the work of creation. In the Book of Genesis, theologians believe that God the Father was speaking to his Son and his Spirit when he said, “Let us make man in our image and likeness” (Gen. 1:26). This same God, Elohim, is the Unity of Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit it was that came upon the Apostles in the upper room during Pentecost and gave them the capacity to speak in many tongues. They were able to speak in the language of all the people that were gathered there, who had come from far and wide, and who testified to hearing the apostles speak in diverse languages (Acts Chapter 2). The Holy Spirit descended on them, by the way, in the form of fire.

Finally, the Holy Spirit appears in the forms of dove, water, fire and wind. He also shows up in the forms of cloud, light, finger, hand, and seal. The Holy Spirit is always with us. He lives inside a heart that is committed to God. In this regard our bodies have been called “temples of the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 6:19-20). We all are children of God and under the divine protection. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we are ratified in our trust and in our faith. And our hope in the resurrection promise makes us love, by the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus

Article 516 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church concerns the reality of Christ as revelation of the Father. Jesus in other words is God, even though he is also true man. In him is the fullness of our human nature, as well as the fullness of God. The perfection of God in essence and deed is Jesus, who properly speaking is the second person of the Trinity. He does the will of God in all things, especially as he is in God and God is in him (John 14:11). The fullness of God’s being is consubstantially participated in by Christ in such a fashion that whoever has seen Christ has similarly seen God the father (John 14:9).

And so it is right to assert that God in Christ entered human history out of Love, in order that he might restore all of Creation back to himself by the blood of his cross. All the things that Christ did while on earth, such as: healing the sick; turning water into wine; casting out demons, and so on, he did in communion with the Father, and by the Father’s own will. He said in this regard to his interlocutors: "My Father is working until now, and I myself am working" (John 5:17). He never admitted to a real separation existing between himself and his father. Indeed, he ultimately said in John 10:30: “I and the Father are one.”

Jesus as true self-revelation of the Father is a teaching that the Church holds very dear, and it is at the center of the Creed. When the Church uses the words “consubstantial with the father,” to describe the one “through whom all things were made,” it tries to say that the essential “stuff” of which God consists – pardon the analogical language, the situation of speaking of God as composed of “stuff” – similarly constitutes Christ. This analogical depiction is akin to a father and his son sharing the same DNA, even though this analogy also fails to do the conceptualization any justice. Jesus is God, and not merely a creature of God. He was in other words “begotten, not made,” as the Creed asserts. And so, to witness God, we witness Christ, because the witness of the latter is the witness of the former.

This teaching, of Jesus as true revelation of the Father, suffered attacks in the history of the Church. Heresies such as Arianism, Ebionism, Adoptionism, Docetism and so forth over the ages sought to distort the nature of Christ as true God and true man. And in response to these heresies, the Church had to progressively define what this nature was. Through Councils and Inquisitions and other means, the Church sought to root out these errors and preserve the Tradition obtained via revelation, the revelation in Christ of a God that seeks to be known as accomplished in his only begotten son, “in whom he is well pleased” (Matt. 3:17). The Son of God was to remain known as true man, and true God.

In our day, this mystery of Jesus Christ as the revelation of God the Father is efficacious in bringing consolation to people who are in need of a message of assurance that there is a presence of the divine operating in their difficult situations. There are many people who do not seem to feel the presence of God operating in their lives. They wonder why they suffer so many hardships and setbacks, and they grope about for some way of understanding the otherwise incomprehensible reality of human existence. If we as Christian ministers can reach out to them with the message that the God who created life itself loves us so much that he participated historically in it, we can be sure to point them toward consolation, in such a way as to secure them a shot at salvation. Jesus himself said: “In this world you will have trouble, but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). The grace of God as lived out in Christ in this way then becomes an efficacious model of perseverance in spite of earthly difficulties.

God

Article 199 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church talks about our belief in God. Our belief in God is described as the “first affirmation of the Apostles’ Creed” in the Article under review. The Church sees God as the end of our faith. He is the eternal creator spirit that alone exists of himself and is infinitely perfect in every possible way. Because God is transcendent of material reality, we can speak of him only analogically, and we first do this apophatically, by identifying what he is not. From this prism, we can then proceed to adduce cataphatic attributes for him. Anselm has seen God to be that than whom nothing more perfect can be conceived. Aquinas in turn has seen God to be the First Cause, whose reality puts paid to the otherwise infinite regress in the accumulation of efficient causes for effects we experience in the universe that God created out of Love.

Furthermore, the Church sees God as the father of Jesus Christ; the first person of the Trinity that consists of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, all living in impenetrable light and deserving of eternal worship and praise. The Elohistic School sees the Trinity as a participatory relationship responsible for the creation of all there is, when God said to his Son and his Spirit, “Let us make man in our image and likeness,” and subsequently gave him dominion over all of creation (Gen. 1:26). This God is the one that calls us into communion with him and desires to communicate himself to us in his Son, so that we can participate more fully in his divinity. This he accomplished in the Incarnation, which refers to the coming as man of the second person of the Trinity, Jesus son of Mary, savior of all of humankind. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is the same God today, the Alpha and the Omega; the First and the Last; the eternal and true, transcendent of all reality there is.

Faith in God is almost as old as humanity. It is impossible to conceive of human beings as devoid of a sense of the divine. The presence of reason in us is a sign that we can potentially know and enter into communion with God. Philosophers tell us that we can know God by natural reason, and they consequently have tried to prove his existence in many philosophical ways. Some of the thinkers that have tried to prove the existence of God include: Aquinas, Bonaventure, Scotus, Anselm, Augustine, and Descartes. They have all affirmed that it is impossible to properly conceive of a universe without similarly conceiving of the God that inspires its existence.

Christianity similarly allows for the possibility of the dependence of knowledge of God on pure reason, but goes further to assert that such knowledge is more eminently derivable from revelation also, of the sort we encounter in Tradition and Scripture. In these divine communications, God reveals himself to us as all we conceive of him to be, in such a way that we need not depend on reason alone to supply us with a depiction of God. We see God in the Old Testament speaking to Abraham, to Moses and to the Prophets, such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Daniel, Amos, and so on. We see him calling them to his service and performing signs and wonders through them, such as: the parting of the red sea; the receipt and handing on of the Decalogue; the bronze serpent erected at his command to save the Israelites from death at the hands of snakes, and many other such portents of the power of God.

In our day, we know about God in a fuller sense from the example of Christ, and from the Church that is his body; we know who this God is, and we show him to others in the way we demonstrate love and compassion to all of creation. And the all-important need to show love and care for all of creation is felt even greater today than ever before, because we live in a rapidly changing world, where people no longer pay as much attention to God as they should. We live in a world that needs to redirect its sights to the divine and, as ministers of word and sacrament, we have a responsibility to the world to be models of faith, models that will help to point people toward lasting communion with God.