The Word Became Flesh

twayneb Dec 28, 2009

I would encourage everyone to read the book of Hebrews and grasp the true significance of what it meant for Christ to be incarnate. The following is a short teaching on how this happened, and what it means to us as believers. Hope you find it edifying.

Travis

Around ten years ago, when I was driving the church bus, a young boy on the bus posed a very interesting question. He asked, "If Mary was Jesus' mother, and God was Jesus' father, were God and Mary married?" I began to ponder his question. How does a virgin give birth? The answer can have a very significant impact on our lives as believers. We will receive the things that God has done for us in exactly the same way that Mary conceived.
In the 7th chapter of Isaiah, God gives King Ahaz a message through Isaiah. In the 9th verse, God says, "If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established." Then God says, ask of Me a sign. Ahaz, let me show you something that will cause your faith to grow. Ahaz says, "I will not ask, neither willI tempt the LORD." Ahaz probably thought that he was doing well by saying this, but God rebukes him very sharply, and says that He will show Ahaz a sign anyway. And what was that sign? It was the prophecy that Jesus Christ would be born of a virgin. "And he said, Hear ye now, a house of David; Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also? Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good. For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings."
Now look at Luke chapter 1. The angel Gabriel appears to Mary, and gives her God's plan for her. "And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end." Now look at Mary's response. She asks a question. "Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?" I want to take just a few seconds to compare and contrast Mary's question with those of three disciples in John 14. Jesus says to the disciples, "And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know." If anyone knew what He was talking about it was Jesus, but look at Thomas' response. "Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?" Basically, Thomas said, Lord, you are wrong. We don't know. Then, Jesus says, "If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him." And again, Philip answers and says, "Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us." Again, Philip says, no we haven't. Lord you are wrong. What you said is not true. Jesus rebuked the disciples for this, just as God, through Isaiah, rebukes Ahaz for his lack of faith. Remember, If you will not believe, you will not be established. Later in the conversation, Judas asks, "Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?" This time there was no rebuke. Judas question was not in doubt. It was not in unbelief of what God would do. He simply asked the Lord how it would come to be, and Jesus gladly explained. All too often, the word of God says something that is hard for us to believe because it goes contrary to what we see, feel, and experience. The Word says, "With His stripes we are healed," and we say something like, "Well, that cannot be true. If that is really true, then why have I not experienced it yet?" This was Thomas' and Philip's response. Mary's response was totally different. She asks, "How will this happen?" Gabriel replies, "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God .... For with God nothing shall be impossible." Then Mary expresses her faith. "And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her." We need to have the same response of faith in receiving the word of the Lord in our own circumstances.
So how did this miracle happen? What was the mechanism that allows a virgin to conceive without fleshly seed, without sperm? Men have debated this question for years and, unfortunately, arrived as several odd conclusions when the word of God is very clear about how it happened. To understand this, we must go back to Genesis and look at Abraham. In Genesis 12: 1-4, we read, "Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him." Notice that God gives Abraham the promise of great offspring, and Abraham acts in total faith toward God and immediately departs out of Haran. In Genesis 1 5: 1•6 we read, "After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward. And Abram said, Lord GOD, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus? And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, 10, one born in my house is mine heir. And, behold, the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness." Abraham asks God how these things will come to pass, and God says that from one of his own children will be the promised seed. Abraham believed, and it was counted to him for righteousness. Our response to the what God says is very important in our receiving what God has given us in His word. Without faith it is impossible to please God. Is your response to the word of God one of faith, or one of disbelief?
In Genesis 22: 16-18 we read, "And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice." Notice that through the promised seed of Abraham all nations of the earth shall be blessed. Again, this is a prophecy of Christ. In Galatians 3, Paul writes, "Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ." Christ was the seed of Abraham promised by God. In John 1 we read, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God." Christ was the living Word of God. Lets put these things together, and find out how Mary conceived. Christ is the seed, and Christ is the living Word of God. Mary heard the word of God, and received, by faith, that word of God. I believe that conception happened the moment that Mary, by faith, received the Word of God and said, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word." It was at this moment that the seed of the Word took root, literally, in Mary's womb and as the scripture says in John 1, "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth."
So what does that have to do with us? Hebrews 10:38 says that the just shall live by faith. Ephesians 2:8 say s that we are saved through faith. So not only do we receive salvation through faith, but then we must live by faith. Everything that you need to receive from God has already been done for you. Everything you receive from God will be received when you put faith in the Word of God which tells you what God has already done for you. When you need healing, Jesus does not listen to your pleas for healing and when He thinks you have begged enough, comes back to earth to bear stripes again so you can be healed. When he hung on the cross, He said, "it is finished." What was finished? The redemptive, atoning work that He came to do. The plan of salvation that the Bible says was ordained from before the foundations of the earth. That atoning work took care of anything we will need to live this life and fulfill God’s destiny for us. What you see in your Bible is not some dead letter, but it is the living a powerful word of God, and it is through abandoning yourself in complete trust and faith that the word of God is true, and with thanksgiving planting that word by faith in your own heart that you will see the birth of the thing that you need from God.
How does this work? Really it is much the same as a natural pregnancy. The first thing that must happen before a birth is conception. The seed must literally be implanted in the womb, just as the seed of the word entered Mary’s womb, and just as the seed of the living word of God enters our hearts. Then comes the period of tending and nurturing that word. When a woman is pregnant, her appetites and her behavior changes. She does whatever it takes to protect that seed, to nurture it. In the same way we must protect the word of God that has been planted in our own hearts. I can guarantee that if the word of God has been planted in your heart, and you nurture, water, and protect that word, there will be a birth. The word of God will be effectual in your life. You will see the manifestation of the thing you have received by faith.
This is what abiding in the vine is all about. John 1 5: 4-8' "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the Vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples." This is what the Sabbath day is all about. It is our Sabbath rest, foreshadowed in the Law, and completed in Christ. When we enter into that rest, we cease from our own labors. It is not about us doing enough to earn our healing, or praying or fasting enough to convince God that we are serious. Those are our labors, and profit us nothing. We rest, by faith, in what Jesus has done. It has to be either all Jesus, or all us that gets us what we need from God, and I can guarantee that we, in and of ourselves, are not going to get the job done. It must be all Jesus. Put your faith in Him, not in your own works.
So how do we develop that kind of faith? We know that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Look at Matthew 13:2-23. Look at verse 19. The seed is the word of God. Remember in Mary's case, the seed was a literal seed of the Living Word, Jesus Christ, planted in her womb by faith in the words of God delivered by His angel. In our case, it is the word of God that is alive and powerful that we plant in our own hearts. Notice the things that keep that word from becoming fruitful. One is having no root, so that when we are persecuted by the enemy, we give up and let go of the word God spoke to us. Another is being so preoccupied with the things of the world that the word just gets choked out. But, if we hear the word, and understand it, we will bear much fruit, and the degree to which we sow will be the degree to which we reap. If we only sow a 30 fold crop, we will only reap a 30 fold harvest. What does the word of God say about sowing and reaping? 2 Corinthians 9:6 says, "But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully." If we just set down and watch television instead of sowing the word of God in our heart, we cannot expect to reap a 100 fold harvest, not because God is not wanting to give us a 1 00 fold harvest, but because we will not have the faith to receive it. But if we sow a 100 fold crop of the word in our heart, then our faith will become fruitful.
God loves us, and wants to pour out on us his blessings. Lets be like Mary and say, yes Lord, be it unto me just as you have said. Plant the word in your heart continually.

sermonindex Dec 29, 2009

i Travis,

Reading this was just what I needed, to keep me moving on.

Yes, I am edified. You brought scriptures together in a very understandable way. And, I realise you are encouraging us to read the word, and in that way, be responsible for planting it in our hearts. But, I suspect you will agree that the word which causes faith to rise in us, is the one which God enlivens to us by His Spirit, so that the necessary faith has come by genuinely 'hearing'. In this sense, it is actually God who sows the seed of the word, yet, as you say, it is up to us to look after it, until it comes to fruition.

Your mention of the Vine, brought to mind this scripture, Ezekiel 19:10, which I have heard preached from the point of view that in Christ, we truly are cut off from the spiritual aspects of our natural inheritance. Once appreciated, many of us have to lay hold of this fact by conscious faith, and by more consciously receiving Christ's death, to 'receive' His word that we are freed.

This gives deeper meaning to what it means to be washed in His blood continuously, thus made able to abide in The true Vine.

twayneb Dec 29, 2009

But, I suspect you will agree that the word which causes faith to rise in us, is the one which God enlivens to us by His Spirit, so that the necessary faith has come by genuinely 'hearing'. In this sense, it is actually God who sows the seed of the word, yet, as you say, it is up to us to look after it, until it comes to fruition.

Absolutely true! If we are aware that what we know intelectually has to be taken to another level by the quickening of the Holy Spirit, there is a place then for continuing steadfast in the word until true revelation comes.

Travis

sermonindex Dec 30, 2009

I. WHY DID THE WORD BECOME FLESH?

456 With the Nicene Creed, we answer by confessing: "For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven; by the power of the Holy Spirit, he became incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and was made man."

457 The Word became flesh for us in order to save us by reconciling us with God, who "loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins": "the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world", and "he was revealed to take away sins":70

Sick, our nature demanded to be healed; fallen, to be raised up; dead, to rise again. We had lost the possession of the good; it was necessary for it to be given back to us. Closed in the darkness, it was necessary to bring us the light; captives, we awaited a Savior; prisoners, help; slaves, a liberator. Are these things minor or insignificant? Did they not move God to descend to human nature and visit it, since humanity was in so miserable and unhappy a state?71

458 The Word became flesh so that thus we might know God's love: "In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him."72 "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."73

459 The Word became flesh to be our model of holiness: "Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me." "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me."74 On the mountain of the Transfiguration, the Father commands: "Listen to him!"75 Jesus is the model for the Beatitudes and the norm of the new law: "Love one another as I have loved you."76 This love implies an effective offering of oneself, after his example.77

460 The Word became flesh to make us "partakers of the divine nature":78 "For this is why the Word became man, and the Son of God became the Son of man: so that man, by entering into communion with the Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God."79 "For the Son of God became man so that we might become God."80 "The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might make men gods."81

II. THE INCARNATION

461 Taking up St. John's expression, "The Word became flesh",82 the Church calls "Incarnation" the fact that the Son of God assumed a human nature in order to accomplish our salvation in it. In a hymn cited by St. Paul, the Church sings the mystery of the Incarnation:

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.83

462 The Letter to the Hebrews refers to the same mystery:

Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, "Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, Lo, I have come to do your will, O God."84

463 Belief in the true Incarnation of the Son of God is the distinctive sign of Christian faith: "By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God."85 Such is the joyous conviction of the Church from her beginning whenever she sings "the mystery of our religion": "He was manifested in the flesh."86

III. TRUE GOD AND TRUE MAN

464 The unique and altogether singular event of the Incarnation of the Son of God does not mean that Jesus Christ is part God and part man, nor does it imply that he is the result of a confused mixture of the divine and the human. He became truly man while remaining truly God. Jesus Christ is true God and true man.

During the first centuries, the Church had to defend and clarify this truth of faith against the heresies that falsified it.

465 The first heresies denied not so much Christ's divinity as his true humanity (Gnostic Docetism). From apostolic times the Christian faith has insisted on the true incarnation of God's Son "come in the flesh".87 But already in the third century, the Church in a council at Antioch had to affirm against Paul of Samosata that Jesus Christ is Son of God by nature and not by adoption. The first ecumenical council of Nicaea in 325 confessed in its Creed that the Son of God is "begotten, not made, of the same substance (homoousios) as the Father", and condemned Arius, who had affirmed that the Son of God "came to be from things that were not" and that he was "from another substance" than that of the Father.88

466 The Nestorian heresy regarded Christ as a human person joined to the divine person of God's Son. Opposing this heresy, St. Cyril of Alexandria and the third ecumenical council, at Ephesus in 431, confessed "that the Word, uniting to himself in his person the flesh animated by a rational soul, became man."89 Christ's humanity has no other subject than the divine person of the Son of God, who assumed it and made it his own, from his conception. For this reason the Council of Ephesus proclaimed in 431 that Mary truly became the Mother of God by the human conception of the Son of God in her womb: "Mother of God, not that the nature of the Word or his divinity received the beginning of its existence from the holy Virgin, but that, since the holy body, animated by a rational soul, which the Word of God united to himself according to the hypostasis, was born from her, the Word is said to be born according to the flesh."90

467 The Monophysites affirmed that the human nature had ceased to exist as such in Christ when the divine person of God's Son assumed it. Faced with this heresy, the fourth ecumenical council, at Chalcedon in 451, confessed:

Following the holy Fathers, we unanimously teach and confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ: the same perfect in divinity and perfect in humanity, the same truly God and truly man, composed of rational soul and body; consubstantial with the Father as to his divinity and consubstantial with us as to his humanity; "like us in all things but sin". He was begotten from the Father before all ages as to his divinity and in these last days, for us and for our salvation, was born as to his humanity of the virgin Mary, the Mother of God.91

We confess that one and the same Christ, Lord, and only-begotten Son, is to be acknowledged in two natures without confusion, change, division or separation. The distinction between the natures was never abolished by their union, but rather the character proper to each of the two natures was preserved as they came together in one person (prosopon) and one hypostasis.92

468 After the Council of Chalcedon, some made of Christ's human nature a kind of personal subject. Against them, the fifth ecumenical council, at Constantinople in 553, confessed that "there is but one hypostasis [or person], which is our Lord Jesus Christ, one of the Trinity."93 Thus everything in Christ's human nature is to be attributed to his divine person as its proper subject, not only his miracles but also his sufferings and even his death: "He who was crucified in the flesh, our Lord Jesus Christ, is true God, Lord of glory, and one of the Holy Trinity."94

469 The Church thus confesses that Jesus is inseparably true God and true man. He is truly the Son of God who, without ceasing to be God and Lord, became a man and our brother:

"What he was, he remained and what he was not, he assumed", sings the Roman Liturgy.95 And the liturgy of St. John Chrysostom proclaims and sings: "O only-begotten Son and Word of God, immortal being, you who deigned for our salvation to become incarnate of the holy Mother of God and ever-virgin Mary, you who without change became man and were crucified, O Christ our God, you who by your death have crushed death, you who are one of the Holy Trinity, glorified with the Father and the Holy Spirit, save us!"96

IV. HOW IS THE SON OF GOD MAN?

470 Because "human nature was assumed, not absorbed",97 in the mysterious union of the Incarnation, the Church was led over the course of centuries to confess the full reality of Christ's human soul, with its operations of intellect and will, and of his human body. In parallel fashion, she had to recall on each occasion that Christ's human nature belongs, as his own, to the divine person of the Son of God, who assumed it. Everything that Christ is and does in this nature derives from "one of the Trinity". The Son of God therefore communicates to his humanity his own personal mode of existence in the Trinity. In his soul as in his body, Christ thus expresses humanly the divine ways of the Trinity:98

The Son of God. . . worked with human hands; he thought with a human mind. He acted with a human will, and with a human heart he loved. Born of the Virgin Mary, he has truly been made one of us, like to us in all things except sin.99

Christ's soul and his human knowledge

471 Apollinarius of Laodicaea asserted that in Christ the divine Word had replaced the soul or spirit. Against this error the Church confessed that the eternal Son also assumed a rational, human soul.100

472 This human soul that the Son of God assumed is endowed with a true human knowledge. As such, this knowledge could not in itself be unlimited: it was exercised in the historical conditions of his existence in space and time. This is why the Son of God could, when he became man, "increase in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man",101 and would even have to inquire for himself about what one in the human condition can learn only from experience.102 This corresponded to the reality of his voluntary emptying of himself, taking "the form of a slave".103

473 But at the same time, this truly human knowledge of God's Son expressed the divine life of his person.104 "The human nature of God's Son, not by itself but by its union with the Word, knew and showed forth in itself everything that pertains to God."105 Such is first of all the case with the intimate and immediate knowledge that the Son of God made man has of his Father.106 The Son in his human knowledge also showed the divine penetration he had into the secret thoughts of human hearts.107

474 By its union to the divine wisdom in the person of the Word incarnate, Christ enjoyed in his human knowledge the fullness of understanding of the eternal plans he had come to reveal.108 What he admitted to not knowing in this area, he elsewhere declared himself not sent to reveal.109

Christ's human will

475 Similarly, at the sixth ecumenical council, Constantinople III in 681, the Church confessed that Christ possesses two wills and two natural operations, divine and human. They are not opposed to each other, but cooperate in such a way that the Word made flesh willed humanly in obedience to his Father all that he had decided divinely with the Father and the Holy Spirit for our salvation.110 Christ's human will "does not resist or oppose but rather submits to his divine and almighty will."111

Christ's true body

476 Since the Word became flesh in assuming a true humanity, Christ's body was finite.112 Therefore the human face of Jesus can be portrayed; at the seventh ecumenical council (Nicaea II in 787) the Church recognized its representation in holy images to be legitimate.113

477 At the same time the Church has always acknowledged that in the body of Jesus "we see our God made visible and so are caught up in love of the God we cannot see."114 The individual characteristics of Christ's body express the divine person of God's Son. He has made the features of his human body his own, to the point that they can be venerated when portrayed in a holy image, for the believer "who venerates the icon is venerating in it the person of the one depicted".115

The heart of the Incarnate Word

478 Jesus knew and loved us each and all during his life, his agony and his Passion, and gave himself up for each one of us: "The Son of God. . . loved me and gave himself for me."116 He has loved us all with a human heart. For this reason, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, pierced by our sins and for our salvation,117 "is quite rightly considered the chief sign and symbol of that. . . love with which the divine Redeemer continually loves the eternal Father and all human beings" without exception.118

IN BRIEF

479 At the time appointed by God, the only Son of the Father, the eternal Word, that is, the Word and substantial Image of the Father, became incarnate; without losing his divine nature he has assumed human nature.

480 Jesus Christ is true God and true man, in the unity of his divine person; for this reason he is the one and only mediator between God and men.

481 Jesus Christ possesses two natures, one divine and the other human, not confused, but united in the one person of God's Son.

482 Christ, being true God and true man, has a human intellect and will, perfectly attuned and subject to his divine intellect and divine will, which he has in common with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

483 The Incarnation is therefore the mystery of the wonderful union of the divine and human natures in the one person of the Word.

70 I Jn 4:10; 4:14; 3:5.
71 St. Gregory of Nyssa, Orat. catech 15: PG 45, 48B.
72 I Jn 4:9.
73 Jn 3:16.
74 Mt 11:29; Jn 14:6.
75 Mk 9:7; cf. Dt 6:4-5. 76 Jn 15:12.
77 Cf. Mk 8:34.
78 2 Pt 1:4.
79 St. Irenaeus, Adv. haeres. 3, 19, 1: PG 7/1, 939.
80 St. Athanasius, De inc. 54, 3: PG 25, 192B.
81 St. Thomas Aquinas, Opusc. 57, 1-4.
82 Jn 1:14.
83 Phil 2:5-8; cf. LH, Saturday, Canticle at Evening Prayer.
84 Heb 10:5-7, citing Ps 40:6-8 ([7-9] LXX).
85 I Jn 4:2.
86 1 Tim 3:16.
87 Cf. I Jn 4:2-3; 2 Jn 7.
88 Council of Nicaea I (325): DS 130, 126.
89 Council of Ephesus (431): DS 250.
90 Council of Ephesus: DS 251.
91 Council of Chalcedon (451): DS 301; cf. Heb 4:15.
92 Council of Chalcedon: DS 302.
93 Council of Constantinople II (553): DS 424.
94 Council of Constantinople II (553): DS 432; cf. DS 424; Council of Ephesus, DS 255.
95 LH, 1 January, Antiphon for Morning Prayer; cf. St. Leo the Great, Sermo in nat. Dom. 1, 2; PL 54, 191-192.
95 Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, Troparion O monogenes.
97 GS 22 # 2.
98 Cf. Jn 14:9-10.
99 GS 22 # 2.
100 Cf. Damasus 1: DS 149.
101 Lk 2:52.
102 Cf. Mk 6 38; 8 27; Jn 11:34; etc.
103 Phil 2:7.
104 Cf. St. Gregory the Great, "Sicut aqua" ad Eulogium, Epist. Lib. 10, 39 PL 77, 1097 Aff.; DS 475.
105 St. Maximus the Confessor, Qu. et dub. 66 PG 90, 840A.
106 Cf. Mk 14:36; Mt 11:27; Jn 1:18; 8:55; etc.
107 Cf. Mk 2:8; Jn 2 25; 6:61; etc.
108 Cf. Mk 8:31; 9:31; 10:33-34; 14:18-20, 26-30.
109 Cf. Mk 13:32, Acts 1:7.
110 Cf. Council of Constantinople III (681): DS 556-559.
111 Council of Constantinople III: DS 556.
112 Cf. Council of the Lateran (649): DS 504. 113 Cf. Cal 3:1; cf. Council of Nicaea II (787): DS 600-603.
114 Roman Missal, Preface of Christmas I.
115 Council of Nicaea II: DS 601.
116 Cal 2:20.
117 Cf. Jn 19:34.
118 Pius XII, Enc. Haurietis aquas (1956): DS 3924; cf. DS 3812.