Evening Prayer 3-1-11

Reading:
John 10:22-42

"I and the Father are one."

This is one of the more important facets of the teachings of Jesus Christ.  In this statement Jesus is teaching that He is God in the flesh.  The mystery of the Holy Trinity is one that is hard to grasp.  The Father is not Son, the Son is not the Father, and the Holy Spirit is not the Father or the Son.  Yet they are not three god's but one God.  St. Athanasius was an early Christian Father who penned the Athanasian Creed.  This Creed attempts to spell out the correct teaching of the Holy Trinity as understood by the Church catholic.  You can read this creed here.

Jesus then teaches that we are sheep that follow the voice of the Shepherd.  Sheep are really dumb animals however, they will not follow just anyone's voice.  They will follow the voice of the Shepherd.  Jesus promises us that since we are His sheep no one will be able to snatch us from Him.  He is the protector of the sheep and this is why we follow Him, because He loves us to the point that He will lay down His life for the sheep. 

Christianity is so hard to understand from our viewpoint.  Why would God do this?  Why would God leave His throne in Glory to become man and then die for us?  He does it because He loves you and He is showing you His love by laying down His life for you.  In doing so, He then imparts His divine life to you through the Word and the Sacraments.  So Jesus calls you to Himself and then gives you His life to flow through you by partaking of the Sacraments.  In doing so you have the Divine life flowing through you so that you can go and do good works and bring the love of Jesus to others.