Imagine what
Jesus would say on Father’s Day, if he were still teaching, as he had been
during the time of the Gospels in Palestine almost 2,000 years ago. Perhaps, he would think that Father’s Day is
a good time to speak about his intimate relationship with the Father in heaven.
In fact,
Jesus has spoken extensively about his intimate relationship with the Father
during his time on earth, according to John’s Gospel.
“The Father and I are one”(John 10:30).
“If I do not perform my Father’s
works, do not believe me; but if I perform
them, even if you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may realize
[and understand] that the Father is in me and I am in the Father”(John 10:37-38).
Jesus spoke
these words to those who were critical of his authority. As a result of these
words, they tried to arrest him. He sure
made more enemies as he spoke of his relationship with the Father.
Then, Jesus
spoke further on his intimate relationship with the Father, this time, to his
disciples during Last Supper.
“Do you not believe that I am in the Father
and the father is in me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my
own. The Father who dwells in me is doing his works. Believe me that I am in
the Father and the Father is in me, or else, believe because
of the works themselves”(John
14:10-11).
“On that day you will
realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you”(John
14:20).”
With the
above words of Jesus (kerygma), Jesus
revealed his unique relationship with the Father: the Father-Son oneness, as
they are in each other reciprocally. This
is reflected in the First Ecumenical Council (325 AD) through these words, “genitum non factum, consubstantialem Patri”…. begotten,
not made, consubstantial with the Father. It is the consubstantiality between
the Father and the Son that is important. In Greek, the consubstantiality of the Father
and the Son are called homoousis,
which literally means “the same being”(home:
same + ousis: being). Of course, the
Father and the Son are not the same on one level but the same in their shared
divine essence. Thus, the Father-Son homoousis
must be understood in the Trinitarian hypostatic union. In other words,
together with the Holy Spirit in Trinity, the Father-Son homoousis is oneness in substance.
The bottom
line of the Father-Son homoousis is the
hypostatic union because the Father is in the Son, and vice versa. In other words, the homoousis is not on the surface but beneath it.
What about
our relationship with the Father?
The key is
in Jesus the Son and lied in these words of his, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one
comes to the Father except through me”(John 14:6). In other words, Jesus is
the only gateway to connect us to Pater
noster qui es in coelis (our Father who art in heaven), unum Deum, Patrem omnipotentem, factorem
caeli et terrae, visibilium omnium et invisibilium (one God, the Father
almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible).
In John
14:20, it is also noteworthy that Jesus juxtaposes his hypostatic homoousis with the Father to his
intimate relationship with us. He wants to be in us and us to be in him as he
is in the Father. That is why he
instituted the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist at the Last Supper so that he,
in his body and blood, through the transubstantiated bread and wine, are taken
in us, so that we are in him as one body, as Paul puts it in Romans 12:5. This
is possible because Corporis et Sanguinis
Christi in the Holy Eucharist is infused with the Holy Spirit, as St.
Ephraim has said.
Jesus the
Son loves the Father so dearly and intimately. He sure would love the Father’s
Day to honor Him. At the same time, he would reiterate his desire to be
intimately in union with us, paralleling to his intimacy with the Father. And
the Body and Blood of Christ in the Holy Eucharist, loaded with the Holy
Spirit, is essential to draw and keep us closer to the Father through Christ
the Son, while making us one body with many parts, reflecting many gifts of the
same Holy Spirit.
The
consubstantiality between the Father and the Son is critically important to
appreciate the Father’s love extended to us through Christ. This love of Our Father in heaven to us must
be appreciated in the context of Trinity and through the Holy Eucharist.
Perhaps, for this reason, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of
Christ following the Solemnity of Trinity.
Let us make
sure that the Father in heaven, to whom we are journeying through Christ,
empowered by the Holy Spirit, thriving on the Holy Eucharist, is honored on
Father’s Day.
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