In the Acts of the Apostles, Saint Peter teaches us in today’s first lesson that Jesus of Nazareth is the only savior of the entire human race and that there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
But if Christ is the only possible savior of every human person, then why is that so? Couldn’t God save us by other means, other faiths, other redeemers? To find the answer to these questions, we turn to this morning’s second lesson, taken from the First Letter of Saint John.
“See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” Here is our first clue to explain why the Lord Jesus is the only possible savior of the entire human race.
Before the Incarnation of the Eternal Word, human persons were simply the creatures of God, but after the death and Resurrection of the Lord Jesus and because of the grace of adoption given to us in Holy Baptism, we who are children of Adam by nature are made the children of God by the grace of adoption through a union of faith, hope, and love with him who alone is both Son of God and Son of Man.
In the entire universe, only Jesus Christ is both God and man, and because he shares our human nature, we can come also to share in his divine nature. This is the Wonderful Exchange of which Pope Saint Leo the Great spoke in a Christmas homily: The Word took on our humanity and in exchange human nature was raised to divine dignity. And Saint Athanasius put it even more plainly: The Son of God became man so that we might become God.
Friends, all who are in Christ are destined to participate in his divine life in such a way that they will be deified or divinized. In the Christian East this transformation is called theosis, and in the West it is called glorification. And this, together with justification and sanctification, is what we mean by salvation.
The consummation of this divinization of redeemed humanity is described in our tradition as the beatific vision, from the Latin beatus meaning blessed. The final end or purpose of man is to become sharers in the divine life of the Most Holy Trinity, and this will happen only when we see God in the face and are changed by that beatific vision from glory into glory.
But this is possible for us only because Jesus Christ is both true God and true Man. In other words, the Lord Jesus is the only Savior of the entire human race because he and he alone is both divine and human, and to be saved means to share in the divine nature of his eternal glory. Only through the humanity we share with Christ can we be joined to his divinity by God’s grace through faith, hope, and love.
And that is why the Buddha cannot save. That is why Mohammed cannot save. That is why even Moses cannot save. No religion, no philosophy, no way of life, no ascetical practice, no wisdom tradition, no mediation technique, no human search for the divine, no course of therapy, no life coach, no twelve step program, and no amount of wealth, power, honor or pleasure can raise us up from the grave and bestow on us the gifts of eternal life, perfect happiness, and unbounded glory.
Jesus Christ alone is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and no one comes to the Father except through him. This is not Christian arrogance, intolerance, or special pleading. It is simply the consequence of the Lord Jesus alone being both God and man.
And the possibility of our coming to share in Christ’s divine glory was opened for us not just by the Incarnation of the Eternal Word but also by his suffering, death, and Resurrection. As we read in the Gospel today: “I am the good shepherd (says the Lord); I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep.”
And for whom does the Good Shepherd lay down his life? “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold (meaning Israel). These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice and there will be one flock, one shepherd.”
This means that the Lord Jesus came to add all of Gentile humanity to the children of Israel to form one people in his body, the Church, and that is why we strive to fulfill the Great Commission by celebrating the sacraments of the New Covenant and preaching the Gospel to the ends of the earth and the end of days.
Saint Paul wrote to the Corinthians that the Gospel reveals “a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glorification … No eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him.” And that is what the Apostle John means in writing “Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed.”
Here Saint John is teaching us that although we have already been made the children of God by the grace of adoption through Holy Baptism and although we are nourished unto everlasting life by the Body and Blood of Christ in the Holy Eucharist, we still do not yet know exactly what awaits those who have been justified and sanctified by Christ after they die. So, we do not yet know what glorification will be like because it has not yet been revealed, but Saint John continues, “We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”
These mysteries are beautifully summarized in a prayer that Catholics hear only at funeral Masses. When the Third Eucharistic Prayer is offered by the priest, then after the consecration of the bread and wine into the Sacred Body and Precious Blood of the risen and glorified Christ, the Church inserts a text just before the doxology which describes the destiny of the one who has died.
This prayer speaks of our being united with Christ’s death through Baptism so that we can be united to him in the Resurrection, and it concludes by pointing us to the beatific vision of God’s holy Face which will change us from glory into glory as we are joined with all the saints and angels in the adoration of the Lamb once slain who lives forever.
In the funeral Mass, the Church prays to the Father of mercies with these words which point to the glorified life of the Resurrection for which we all hope: Lord …
“Remember your servant whom you have called from this world to yourself. Grant that she who was united with your Son in a death like his may also be one with him in his Resurrection, when from the earth he will raise up in the flesh those who have died, and transform our lowly body after the pattern of his own glorious body.
“To our departed brothers and sisters, too, and to all who were pleasing to you at their passing from this life, give kind admittance to your kingdom. There we hope to enjoy for ever the fullness of your glory, when you will wipe away every tear from our eyes. For seeing you, our God, as you are, we shall be like you for all the ages and praise you without end, through Christ our Lord, through whom you bestow on the world all that is good.” (Roman Missal, Eucharistic Prayer III)
Christos Anesti! Alithos Anesti!
Christ is Risen! Truly He is Risen! Alleluia! Alleluia!
This is the text of my homily for 21 April 2024, the Fourth Sunday of Easter.
Fr Jay Scott Newman