Sep 21 Mon
Did God enter human history as just one more character?
Our Lord Jesus Christ lived at a particular moment in history, appearing to people as a true man, born of the Virgin Mary.
Some first-century heretics taught that Jesus Christ did not have a true body, but merely an apparent body, like angels who appeared to men. They thought that death on the cross was impossible for and unworthy of the Son of God. Yet St. John the Apostle wrote, "Every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God."
At the same time, He is God. We believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only-begotten born of the Father … true God from true God; begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father.”
In this regard, the three “Abrahamic” religions have far greater differences than similarities.
Catholics pray the Nicene Creed at every Sunday Mass. It’s the specific expression of what we believe. For 17 centuries, men and women have died defending it. Except for the Creed’s first line, Islam rejects every key element of the text.
St. John Paul II held more substantive meetings with Muslim leaders than all previous popes combined. And he approached Islam with sincere goodwill, without diminishing its differences from Christianity.
The Pope set his appeal within the context of Muslims’ belief in the one God who is Creator and author of justice and peace: “We believe in the same God, the one God, the living God, the God who created the world and brings his creatures to their perfection.” However, this perception needs qualification. Islam and Judeo-Christianity are indeed monotheistic, but Christians and Muslims do not have an identical vision of the one God. The common journey undertaken by individual believers must not be taken to imply a common creed.
“Whoever knows the Old and New Testaments, and then reads the Qur'an, clearly sees the process by which it completely reduces Divine Revelation. It is impossible not to note the movement away from what God said about Himself, first in the Old Testament through the Prophets, and then finally in the New Testament through His Son. In Islam, all the richness of God’s self-revelation, which constitutes the heritage of the Old and New Testaments, has definitively been set aside."
“Some of the most beautiful names in the human language are given to the God of the Qur'an, but He is ultimately a God outside of the world, a God who is only Majesty, never Emmanuel, God-with-us."
“Islam is not a religion of redemption. There is no room for the Cross and the Resurrection. Jesus is mentioned, but only as a prophet who prepares for the last prophet, Muhammad. There is also mention of Mary, His Virgin Mother, but the tragedy of redemption is completely absent. For this reason, not only the theology but also the anthropology of Islam is very distant from Christianity."
To realize that God chose to become man, dwell among us, and die for us! We should reflect on the consequences.