{"id":3845,"date":"2016-04-03T10:00:09","date_gmt":"2016-04-03T14:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/?p=3845"},"modified":"2016-03-30T13:38:20","modified_gmt":"2016-03-30T17:38:20","slug":"gaining-a-deeper-understanding-of-our-faith-20160403","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/?p=3845","title":{"rendered":"GAINING A DEEPER UNDERSTANDING OF OUR FAITH — 20160403"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"holy-cross-justice-icon-of-the-resurrection\"<\/a>As I indicated in the Easter issue of my Bulletin, it is my hope to share with my readers thoughts about redemption <\/em><\/strong>and salvation<\/em><\/strong> during this time of Pentecost. Why? Because they are so intimately connected with Pascha and are, I belief, understood by our Greek Catholic Church in a different way than in the Roman Catholic Church. I also believe that understanding this true difference is critical to the development of a true spirituality that resonates with our liturgical practice and theology.<\/p>\n

As I began to share in the last issue, in the Western world the idea that Jesus\u2019 death on the Cross was a reparation <\/em><\/strong>for the sins of mankind. It has to be understood that Western theology became greatly influenced by the philosophy of Aristotle and, therefore, became focused on finding the \u201ccause\u201d for the things that happened. It tried to answer the question: Why did Jesus die on the Cross? In fact one of the great Western theologians, Thomas Aquinas, posited the notion that the Lord\u2019s death on the Cross was the \u201ceffective and sufficient cause\u201d of our salvation. Also the expression \u201cmeritorious cause\u201d has often been used in Western Christianity. Salvation, in the West, has a lot to do with achieving a defined measure of \u201cmerits\u201d. Redemption is something transactional – something that happens because of things that we do.<\/p>\n

When we read the early Church Fathers, especially the Greek Fathers, we find something different. If the goal of redemption is the union<\/em><\/strong> of man with God, then the Incarnation is far more than a condition<\/em><\/strong> for our salvation. Rather it served as the effective model and exemplar of salvation. Indeed the Church Fathers insisted that the \u201cfull humanity\u201d of Jesus Christ was essential<\/em> <\/strong>to man\u2019s redemption because<\/p>\n

\u201cwhatever was not \u00a0assumed was not redeemed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The principle enunciated in this simple formula was the foundation of much of the dogmatic work of the ecumenical councils.<\/p>\n

When we read St. Basil we come to understand that the foundation thesis for our understanding of salvation is that what Jesus accomplished on our behalf, and for our benefit, depended entirely on WHO HE WAS.<\/p>\n

When you read the Fathers closely, you discover that the RESURRECTION of Christ was essential to the causality of redemption – that the Resurrection was just as essential as His death on the Cross.<\/p>\n

This will all become clearer as I continue to share thoughts on this subject.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I indicated in the Easter issue of my Bulletin, it is my hope to share with my readers thoughts about redemption and salvation during this time of Pentecost. Why? Because they are so intimately connected with Pascha and are, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[86],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gaining-a-deeper-understanding-of-our-faith"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3845"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3845\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3846,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3845\/revisions\/3846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}