Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00 <inaudible> as we nailed before the crib, this Christmas season and these strange days that we live in, which is the general cultural attitude seems to present a relationship with our Lord as just another of many possible choices in a great solid bar of reality. One of the latest fads is her name babies after ancient pagan gods. We gotta take a few minutes to come to a deeper understanding of our own relationship with Christ, our Lord and our relationship with Adam. We'll start by reviewing some fundamental truths about our Lord, two basic concepts of nature and person and how they apply to our Lord. For the sake of time in this section, we'll rely heavily on Frank Shi nature matching. We're staying in a cabin in the woods and late at night we hear a strange noise and we wonder what is that? Is it a mountain line? Is grizzly bear? What is it?
Speaker 0 01:14 When we asked the question, what was that? But when we ask the question, what can something do? We're asking a question about nature's nature is the wetness of something. Fish have fish nature. They swim and breathe. Water. Birds have burst nature. They have feathers, they lay eggs. We have human nature, man have human natures. We have bodies and any mortal soul. We can walk and talk and laugh and think in ordinary language. Nature answers the question, what is it or what can it do? Person now matching. We're staying in that cabin and we hear a knock on the door. Now we hear that we don't go. What was that? Was that a Kyle? Is that a grizzly bear? We don't ask. What was that? We say who's there. Why? Because we already know what date you are dealing with. We're dealing with someone with a human nature.
Speaker 0 02:13 We asked the question who we're asking the question about persons. Nature determines what something is and what it can do. The person that's who's knocking, that's who's actually doing this particular thing. Okay. Let's take another example. What are we, well, we all got human nature, but we're all different persons, aren't we? Who am I? Father? Phil Wolfe. Although the abilities of a particular thing are determined by its nature. For example, I can speak, I can talk. I can think my nature doesn't talk. My nature doesn't preach. My nature doesn't think I do a person, a person does all those things. I'm talking my nature's and talking. You're listening. Your nature isn't listening. You're sitting. Your nature isn't sitting, your breathing, your nature isn't breathing. Okay? So speaking, thinking, laughing, talking, all these are things that are possible because we have a human nature, but our nature doesn't do any of these things.
Speaker 0 03:13 We do. A person does those. So nature tells us, what is it? What can it do? Person tells us who is it? Who's actually doing it? Okay, so with each one of us, there's one who, and one what? In other words, there's one person, a human person who's preaching, Father Wolf. One nature. What type of nature is human nature? Okay, what is he is human. Who is he? Father. Wolf. All right. That's how it works. Now in keeping in mind that our nature tells us what is it and what can it do and person tells us, who is it? Who's doing it today? Let's take a look at our lord and ask ourselves four questions. First, what is he second, what can he do? Third, who is he and fourth, who's actually doing so? What is he? What can he do? Who is he? Who's actually doing anything that our Lord's doing?
Speaker 0 04:19 Number One, what is he? Our Lord is true God. He has a divine nature and he's true man. He has a human nature, which means he has a human body and his soul. Our Lord has two distinct natures. So if we asked her, Lord, what are you? He could honestly say, I am a man. And he also could honestly say, I am God. He has two distinct natures. Two witnesses. We ask God, what is he? He's true God, and he's true man. Two distinct nature's question. Two is he our Lord is a divine person. The second person or the most blessed trinity, God, the son, the word made flesh, so like us, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ is one person, but unlike us, he is not a human person. Our Lord is not a human person. He's a divine person. That little baby crying in a manger, laying there is God the son God from all eternity who then in the fullness of time cook himself a human nature who took flesh from busted Virgin Mary and who won that first Christmas was born in the stable and death line.
Speaker 0 05:46 So our Lord has two natures United in one person. The natures are United in one person. It is a personal union. The natures are United in the one person, a human nature and a divine nature. United in one divine person, the second person or the most blessed trinity, God the Son. Keep in mind that even if God willing, we should make it to heaven and we pondered this thoughts all eternity. It will be still be something we can never completely comprehend. We can keep on penetrating deeper and deeper and seeing more and more things in this mystery, but we'll never able be able to totally comprehend it. No matter how long we think about it. Said best at the end of this sermon, we'll be left in a more luminous dark. Number three. What can he do? Because he has a divine nature. Our Lord can do anything and everything that pertains to being God.
Speaker 0 06:52 He can create all things. He can hold all things in existence. He can turn water into wine. He can forgive sins. He can resurrect himself from the dead, and because he has a human nature, he can do anything and everything that pertains to be in a man. He can be born at the blessed Virgin Mary. He can be wrapped in swaddling clothes, laying a manger. He can eat, he can work, and he can sweat and he can suffer and he can die. God can die. Remember the death that means the soul leaves the body God with the human nature has a soul. He has a body at death. His soul left his body. God can die. Now the fact that our Lord has two natures, United one divine person has some absolutely remarkable consequences as we'll see when we go to this last question. Number four, who's actually doing it?
Speaker 0 07:51 Remember that although at the abilities of a particular thing are determined by its nature, the person actually performs the actions. Since we're men, we can talk, but our nature doesn't talk. A particular person talks. You're sitting your natures and sitting on preaching my natures and preaching your breathing. Your nature isn't breathing, okay? All those things are possible because we have a human nature, but our nature isn't doing them. Let's apply that to our Lord as we've seen because our lord has a human nature. He could do anything and everything that goes with being a man. He could be born as the blessed virgin. He can be wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in nature, but who's being born? Who's being wrapped in swaddling clothes and laying a manger, a person, a person is doing all those things. A person, a divine person. The second person, the most blessed at Trinity, God the Son, God, the son is laying there, that little ADPD baby, he's got the sun.
Speaker 0 09:00 That's what we mean when we say the blessed Virgin Mary is the mother of God and sometimes people will say crazy things like Mary is the mother of God's nature. That's whacked. Nature's don't have leathers. She's the mother of God, the son. In the same way that my mom is my mom, and that your mom is your mom. What did she do for him? The same thing your mom did for you, which is give you a body. Mom's don't give us souls on this. Don't give us that, but she gives us her body and that's exactly what the blessed Virgin Mary did for our Lord God the Son. No matter what our Lord does, whether it's raising men from the dead or eating breakfast, it's always a person that's doing it, but a fine person. The second person, bless the Trinity, God the Son, the word made flesh.
Speaker 0 09:50 That also means that any act that our Lord does any act at all has an infinite value because who is doing that act? It's God. The person who does that act is God. Okay, so we asked ourselves four questions. What is he? Our Lord has two natures. He's got a human nature. She's true man. He's got a body in his soul. He's the divine nature. He's true. God, who is he? He's the second person that bless the Trinity. God from all eternity, but he took a human nature to himself in the fullness of time from the blessed Virgin Mary. Um, what can he do? Can you do everything proper to being a man and get everything crop and at the end, God, but who's doing anything that the Lord does? It's God. God the son is doing it. The second person or the bus. The Trinity.
Speaker 0 10:43 Okay. Now let's tie all this together in order to understand why our relationship with our Lord isn't just another possible choice. The great cosmic salad bar of reality. In order to understand our religion at all, in order to understand the absolute necessity for each of us to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, we need to have a clear understanding of two points. One, what does Adam have to do with each one of us? In other words, what's our relationship with Adam and how does that arise and to what does Jesus Christ have to do with each one of us? What does that relationship with him and how does that arise? Let's have a relationship with Adam and how does it arise? What's our relationship with our Lord and how does it arise? First, what does Adam have to do with us? What's our relationship with Adam and how does it arise?
Speaker 0 11:46 This one's easy. Adam is the physical head and natural father of we have a natural relationship to Adam. We're all descended from Adam. Okay? As an aside, just show us the complete stupidity of racism since we're all equally to send it from one common father Adam, and since we're all descended from Adam, since we're all equally as sons, we're all equally is theirs. Right? That means we each get a share and inheritance passed down to us by Adam. That means we've inherited all those things that Adam has declared to us, right, and what has Adam handed down to us? Okay. Those things like original sin, concupiscence, sin, suffering, death, and bondage to the devil. That's what we inherit from that. Yeah. Great. Thanks a lot, Adam. So we have a natural relationship with Adam. He's the fiscal head of mankind. He was our representative before God, our ambassador on the behalf of mankind before God, and he blew it on behalf of mankind.
Speaker 0 13:01 He declared war naturally speaking. Where's heirs and fellow citizens? So that's why scripture says by nature we are born children of Raf, that what we got from Adam. Second question, what does Christ have to do with us? What's his relationship with Christ and how does that arise? Now that we've had two time pondering the WHO's and what's of our Lord, we should have a clear understanding of the answer to this question. We should have a clear understanding of what it means when we say he's not a human person. He's a divine person. The second person, the most blessed to trinity, and he's got two natures. He's true God and true man. So now we can easily see what Christ has to do with us. On the one hand, because Christ is God, the God, the image and likeness, we were all created, the God who made all things out of nothing, who's holding all things in, being, holding everything above the surface of nothingness, so to speak, keeping everything from collapsing back into nothingness.
Speaker 0 14:08 This God who constantly pours down into us existence, he knows even our most secret thoughts and desires. All the secrets, our hearts, because he's actually holding those in existence. Even our sins he holds in existence. He's giving our most secret thoughts, dean, because he's got, it's easy to see that relationship. We have a relationship with him of existence. He's actually holding each one of us know our thoughts, words and deeds and existence, right? Because he's man, he can do anything and everything that goes with being man, but any act or Lord does any act. It all has an incident value since the person who's doing it, his God. Now step back from that for a minute and imagine a man coming to you. He's just been sentenced to a very painful death, but he's given the opportunity for one appeal and he's asking you for advice.
Speaker 0 15:08 He wants to know what lawyer should I hire? He's got a number of choices. One of the defense lawyers is very experienced and has never lost a case and none of the rest have ever won a case. What are you going to advise? It's a no brainer, right? It's the same problem for each one of us. Thanks to Adam, we've all been sentenced to death without grace. That means eternal death too, but now since the incarnation, Jesus Christ is available, he's available to represent us and he's the perfect man. He's one of us, but unlike us, he's never offended God. He is God. Every act he does has infinite value and in his most important that he came to redeem us in order that we might receive adoptions as the sons of God and Saint Paul points out in today's epistle, he came specifically to untangle the mess we're in as a result of Adam's sin.
Speaker 0 16:18 Now here's the problem. Listen carefully. This is the problem. As men, as descendants of Adam, we all have a natural relationship to him. We fell and supernaturally died in Adam insofar as we're United to him. Well, United to him is that representative, whether we like it or not, just by the mere fac that we've been conceived and there's not a thing we can do about that. We accept the course of busted virgin. There's not a thing we can do about it. We're United to add him as our representative, whether we like it or not. And just did. We fell from grace and became shoulder with Ras because of our union with that. So also union with Christ restores us to grace and makes us adopted sons of God just as we've been. Just let's do that again. Just as we fell from grace, it became children of Wrath because of our union with Adam, you knew it with Christ restores us to graves and makes us the adopted sons of God.
Speaker 0 17:27 Union with Christ restores us to graze and makes us the adopted sons of God. We're naturally United to add them whether we like it or not, we can't help that, but we have to be supernaturally United to Christ to be restored and get the of the adopted sons of God hear the same points express by infallible teaching of the church in Canada. Three of the decree on original sin and from the Council of Trent quote, if anyone asserts that the sin of Adam, which is transmitted to all men by propagation and is in each man as his own is taken away either by the powers of human nature or by any other remedy besides the merit of the one mediator our Lord Jesus Christ with reconciled us to God and his own blood. Let him be anathema for there is no other name under heaven given to men whereby we must be saved.
Speaker 0 18:37 Close quote then fallible teaching of the Catholic Church. If anyone asserts that the sin of Adam is taken away by any other remedy by the sides in there of our Lord and Savior Christ, let him be anathema, which means led MBX communicated just as we all fell from graves and became children of rap because they were viewed him with Adam Union, with Christ and only union with Christ restores us to grace and makes us an adopted sons of God as a comm, masters interior life role quo. We shall belong to Christ or we shall not have supernatural life. We should be sons with the word in Karnak and the bosom of the Holy Trinity, but we shall be excluded from the Kingdom of Heaven. Close quote. Now the Lord desires the salvation of all man. That's why he came on his mission of mercy. Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life as a holy patron.
Speaker 0 19:47 Saint Peter says, there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. There is no other way besides union with Christ to be saved. There is no other way. Reality is not some giant cosmic salad bar either. Jesus Christ is that representative before God or he isn't. There are no other choices. So this Christmas we had to really ponder that when we look at the crip and they filled with sanks and with wandering with joy, that even though each one of us is by his nature for a child of harass, in spite of that our Lord have mercy on us, we ought to be filled with wonder and joy that God took mercy on us, proud, rebellious dust like us, and gave us dignity of becoming the sons of God and the heirs of eternal life. And that is the principle reason. We should be married this Christmas. Merry Christmas. <inaudible>.
