Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!

In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“’And this is Life Eternal: that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom Thou hast sent.’”

These are the life-giving words of our Lord from today’s Gospel, if we are to believe St. Peter who readily confessed, “’Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of Eternal Life, . . . .?’” (Jn. 6:68). What Jesus says to His Disciples has been given to Him from the Father, thus He speaks and traditions divine revelation to all those whom the Father has given to Him. “’I have given them Thy Word,’” Jesus says (Jn. 14:10; 17:14). Every aspect of our Lord’s words and every aspect of His life are devoted to one thing and to one thing only: to glorify His heavenly Father by the obedient doing of His will, just as it has been written of Him in Sacred Scripture, “’Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God’” (Ps. 39 [40]:7; Hb. 10:7, 9). This is why He has come. This is why He died. This is why He was raised up from the dead and ascended into Heaven to sit at the Father’s right hand. This is why He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.

It is a staple, long recognized in St. John’s Holy Gospel, that the Son of God, Jesus Christ, born of the Virgin Mary, is the way to the Father (Jn. 14:6) and if we desire to know the Father we must first know His Son. Jesus chides His Disciple, Phillip, who asked Jesus to “’show us the Father’” to which our Lord replies, “’Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Phillip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; . . . .’” (Jn. 14:9). This is the whole foundation of the Gospel! He Who was in the beginning with God and Who is Himself God has come to reveal the Father, to make the Father known and, in a sense, tangible to us fallen and sinful men and women who bear the image of God and who have been made capable of attaining to the likeness of God Himself (Gn. 1:26-27; WS 2:23; Jn. 1:1-2). “No one has seen God at any time,” declares the Evangelist and Theologian in the opening chapter of his Gospel. “The only begotten Son, Who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him” or “made Him known” (Jn. 1:1-18).

This, beloved, is Christology 101, the basic fundamentals of Jesus Christ which, if misunderstood, leads us down the path to heresy. This is the extreme danger of heresy: all heresies are fundamentally errors in Christology. This is what each of our 7 Ecumenical Councils were convened to address, especially so the First Ecumenical Council commemorated here today, which had to address the pernicious and seemingly ever-present heresy of the presbyter, Arius, who was teaching his flock that “there was a time when the Son of God was not.” Arius believed that Jesus was not the pre-eternal Son of God of one essence with the Father, but rather that had come into time as a creature and had been “adopted,” if you will, to be the Son of God. This has implications and a rippling effect. If we don’t get Jesus right, if we misunderstand the Son of God, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the ever-Virgin Mary, we will invariably get the Father wrong, not to mention the Holy Spirit. In fact, this is what the Councils had to address at one time or another. And, this is why the Apostle warns the bishops and the presbyters of Ephesus in today’s reading from Acts of heresies and admonishes them to defend and protect their flocks charged to their spiritual oversight (Ac. 20:16-18, 28-36). As an aside, though not unrelated, let me ask you: if every man and woman is able to and entitled to their own interpretation of Sacred Scripture, how is it possible to root our heresy since it’s just another understanding alongside many others? Arius simply had a different understanding of Jesus and saw things differently, if we accept this. Furthermore, if every man and woman has their own understanding which is equally valid and true, how is it even possible for a pastor to defend and protect his flock from error, as charged by the Apostle? Is it not really a “he said/she said” free-for-all? Must there not be some sort of canon of Truth, some standard by which all things are measured, if a pastor is to do what the Apostle asks? What is Truth and what is error (1 Jn. 4:1-6)?

But, let’s move on. If we desire to know the true and living God, we must know His true and living Son. In fact, Jesus says that this is Eternal Life: to know the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. But, what does that mean – to know? And, to whom shall we go for this knowledge? Or, where is such precious knowledge found and preserved? On one level, knowledge or knowing is purely an academic and intellectual exercise – name, rank, and serial number – enough to pass the catechetical quiz. But, that, in and of itself, doesn’t give us Eternal Life. It can lead us there, but it cannot give us Eternal Life. Such knowledge is a start. It sets us out on the right path so long as we have the “right” Jesus.

But, what is Eternal Life? By the Gospel, it’s more than getting to live forever, though immortality is certainly part of it. By the Gospel, however, Eternal Life is the knowledge of God or communion with Him, to have the divine Life of the Eternal One dwelling within us (Jn. 7: 37-38; 14:23). And, as such, that comes only by way of encountering and experiencing God in and through His Son Jesus Christ Who alone reveals His Father to the human heart and conscience. And, to know the Father through His only-begotten Son is to know and keep His Word. This is how all of us must come to know the Father in and through His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Jesus says as much. “’If you love Me, keep My commandments,’” He says, and the Father will send the Spirit of Truth to us Who will bear witness to our souls (Jn. 14:15-24; Rm. 8:16). This spiritual knowledge, beloved, is, therefore, a communion of love for God is love (1 Jn. 4:7-21). And, if we love God through His Son, “we keep His commandments” (1 Jn. 5:3) because this is what love does and how love comes to know God. This is the knowledge of love that leads us to Eternal Life.

This knowledge of God, beloved, is what the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council – and every other Council ever convened – fought diligently against heresies to preserve. Indeed, it was to preserve the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church because only in this Church can God be known to the fullest possible extent because in this Church so preserved is our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ to be encountered and experienced in humble prayer and repentance, in the Word and in the Holy Mysteries of the Faith. If we want to know God and His Eternal Life, beloved, we must hasten to drink from the right Fountain – from the pool of Siloam (Jn. 9:7), from the Church Jesus Christ founded upon His holy Apostles and has preserved through history in the power of the Holy Spirit (Mt. 28:18-20; Ep. 1:22-23; 2:20; 3:1-5, 8-11; Rv. 21:14). This Church and this Church only “is His Body, the fullness of Him Who fills all in all” (Ep. 1:22-23).

“’And this is Life Eternal: that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom Thou hast sent.’” “For to know Thee is perfect righteousness,” declares Solomon in his Book of Wisdom, “yea, to know Thy power is the root of immortality” (WS 15:3).

Through the prayers of our holy Fathers, O Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen.

Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!

VIGIL PROPERS:                   PROPERS:

Gn. 14:14-20                                      Ac. 20:16-18, 28-36    

Dt. 1:8-17                                           Jn. 17:1-13

Dt. 10:14-21