Friday, September 12, 2014

God Lifted Him High


This great blue heron stood in one spot on my dock this morning for over an hour.  I took 20 pictures before I got this beautiful shot.
The 2nd reading for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (Philippians 2:5-11) makes the feast more about the Exaltation than about the Cross.  In humility the Son empties himself to become one of us and in obedience he goes to the Cross.  The Father rewards the Son's humility and obedience by lifting him high and giving him "the name above all names." 
That name is "Yahweh," the sacred name  that God revealed to Moses.  Since Jews do not pronounce that name out loud, they would substitute some other word.  The most common substitution was "Lord."  When Paul says at the end of the passage, then, that "Jesus Christ is Lord" he means the he is God. 
St. Athanasius in the fourth century  summed up the Mystery in this bold statement, "God became man so that man might become God."

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