Easter 4C (Acts 9:36-43; Ps 23; Rev 7:9-17; Jn 10:22-30)

​* I’m indebted to Marie-Dominique Chenu who talks about a theological virtue of faith and the incarnation in his book, Aquinas and His Role in Theology, pp. 22-23: “The Word of God is heard in the context of faith. This Word can only be received in faith. Even in human dialogue with another person, exchanging words with one another, a certain bare minimum of truth is the fundamental condition for dialogue...When God is the partner, this psychological necessity becomes doubly important because of the radical demand arising from the very nature of the human spirit. The human mind needs to be lifted up (elevatio) to the level of its divine partner, whose life continues to remain totally mysterious. In this way, faith lifts up my intelligence to the mystery of this transcendent being who speaks to me. Faith is a theological virtue in the strict sense of the term, since from the start it confers on me a participation in the divine nature. Without that, how could there be dialogue?...in order to undertake and achieve the dialogue, God becomes human. As a result of this disconcerting initiative, since God is going to speak to me as a human being, I am going to undertake to dialogue with God as a human--first in the Scriptures, then (and supremely so) in the incarnation, and finally in his Church which continues to be his body. My faith will not bring about a mystical transport beyond my human condition, but rather a communion at my own psychological level achieved in human words with the capacity to proclaim God in my own earthly formulations, using human grammar and expressions. In Christ, the Word Of God has spoken to me in a dialogue that is consubstantial with my humanity. Certainly I should have no illusions about the frailty of what my words can say; in this context they can be, I can be sure that they will, following their intended meaning and by the Church’s assurance, authentically continue the truth of the Word of God.”