Reflection on Chapter Eight - Jesus of Nazareth Part II (Pope Benedict XVI)
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There would be no crucifixion and burial, if there were no obedience. It was the “obedience even unto death” that made Christ’s death the ultimate sacrifice that moved Heaven to restore life to a fallen people. Like a lamb he was led to the slaughter house, never once opening its mouth, Is 53 : 7 No one else would walk in obedience to God at these terrible prospects :
- a horrible death that was predestined by God before the foundation of the world. It was God’s eternal plan that his Son should suffer and die in this way. Acts 4:27
- enduring this lowest point of humiliation in Phil 2 : 6 - 8 - Though he was God, he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, born in the likeness of men. Became obedient to the point of death .
It was this painful fatal ignominous obedience that brought death on a Cross, that earned for him the highest respect and honour before Heaven Phil 2 : 9 - 11 - Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
A strange event that led to the birthing of Mother Church, to the promise of eternal life for the Believer Jn 3 : 15. The Synoptic Gospels explicitly portray Jesus’ death on the Cross as a cosmic - liturgical event : the sun is darkened, the veil of the Temple is torn in two, the earth quakes, the dead rise again. The Roman Centurion acknowledges “Truly this Man was the Son of God”, Mk 15 : 39. At the foot of the Cross, a Gentile Church comes into being¹.
Many know that beyond life is death. But do we know that beyond death is life ? And life depended on Christ’s consent to shedding His blood, without which there would have been no forgiveness of sins . Heb 9:22
Do I belief ? As St Augustine had pointed out, the “New” is concealed in the “Old” and the “Old” revealed in the “New” - I have no reason to disbelief.
