Memorial of St Athanasius: Jesus is God

Fr Richard's homily for today's Memorial of St Athanasius

Readings: https://universalis.com/20200502/mass.htm

Homily: Jesus is God

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Many of Jesus’ disciples stopped following Him after hearing His “Bread of Life” discourse. They couldn’t stomach His claim to be the “living bread which has come down from heaven”, not to mention His command to “eat this bread”. Fundamentally, they objected to Jesus’ claim to Divinity. Relying solely on human logic, they refused to believe that the man from Nazareth in their midst could be God.

Similarly, the Divine Personhood of Christ was the doctrine that Saint Athanasius of Alexandria defended and proclaimed to his dying day. He lived during the 4^th century and, at the time, the Arian heresy was rife. Arius taught that Jesus did not exist eternally as God before His Incarnation as man. He said that Jesus was only “divine” by analogy and that He was a created being. Arians did not believe that Jesus was of the same substance as the Father, or in that intimate Father-Son relationship which Jesus so beautifully alludes to in today’s Gospel.

Saint Athanasius vehemently opposed this heresy, earning him the title “Father of orthodoxy”. He was present at the Council of Nicaea (325) from which we get the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed (the longer Creed for Sundays and Solemnities). In that Creed we indeed profess that Jesus is the “Only Begotten Son of God”, that He was “born of the Father before all ages”, and the He is “begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father.”

Saint Athanasius’ defence of this Doctrine made him many enemies. He was falsely accused of several crimes, including murder, and was exiled at least five times. But despite his sufferings he never ceased in proclaiming Christ as true God and true man.

Thank God Jesus is God! It’s only the God-man who was able to conquer sin and death by dying and rising again. It is He who is our hope, our comforter, and our love. In the words of Simon Peter: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the message of eternal life, and we believe; we know that you are the Holy One of God.”