Friday, 11/16/12
In the first reading St. John warns us against those who do
not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh.
In the time of the Apostles there were many people who felt
that Jesus was too fine to have had flesh like the rest of us. That mistake was
rooted in an old Persian belief in two creators. There was supposedly one who
created everything good and spiritual, and one who created everything evil and
fleshy. Those people, rather than believe there was anything evil about Jesus,
began saying that what appeared to be his physical body was actually a mirage. Taking the Greek
word for a mirage, which was dokein,
such people were called the Docetists.
Even though they had good intentions in saying there was
nothing fleshy about Jesus, their mistake actually detracted from his
greatness. Jesus took on a real body because he had to be one of us in
order to redeem our human nature. What is more, by saying that his body was not
real the Docetists were denying the great heroism Our Lord experienced in
willingly suffering the horrors of his humiliating execution.
By taking on our full human nature he elevated the dignity
of all of us.
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