Ponderings with Fr. Mike

Last week I introduced you to a 4th century priest name Arian*. I said in last week’s posting that he was not able to fully understand how Jesus was able to save us. He believed that Jesus was only a creature and not divine. Because of his erroneous teaching, the Bishops at the Council of Nicene were compelled to resolve the error and therefore settled on the word consubstantial to correct this error.

St. Athanasius was instrumental in helping clarify our understanding of the Second person of the Trinity. St. Athanasius, through prayer and reflection upon Scripture, was able to develop a theology on the Incarnation of Jesus. In response to Arian and his followers, the Nicene Creed explained how Jesus was not merely a created being, as Arian proposed, but also divine when it says, “for our salvation he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary and became man.”

The second article of the Nicene Creed clearly and decisively articulates who Jesus is. He is of the same substance of the Father (Consubstantial) and as God he came to be human (incarnation) without losing any part of his divinity or humanity. Therefore he is True God and True man. (Reference Galatians 4:4; 1 Timothy 2:5-6)

Why these words (Consubstantial/Incarnation) are so important will be the focus of next week’s posting.

*There are other errors (heresies) that existed during this time , yet due to space I have limited my thoughts to Arianism.