At Mass, we come to God,
and God comes to us
at the meeting place of the altar.
We can point to His presence with us
and, in the same faith,
we are fixed in His gaze
until we have taken Him
into our bodies and souls,
our lives and our hearts
where He dwells
and makes us more like Him.
But God is Trinity in Unity.
We are not.
How are we meant to become
like God?
We need to learn to live the Trinity.
[PAUSE]
Our Lord Jesus Christ
becomes a man,
so that we might become
like Him
and live our lives
as committed members
of the Orthodox and Catholic Church.
We are not to live lives that are Arian.
Arians believe that Jesus is created,
more than a man,
but not of the same substance of God.
If Arians become more like that,
they will never see God.
They will never know
true salvation
which lies beyond
the universe of created things.
We are not Arians.
Being Arian says that
our life can only be lived
in Creation
and separate from God.
Being Arian
denies that
the end of our journey
is God.
We are to live lives
in the hope
of our return
to the visible presence of God
and not as part of the backdrop
of the universe.
[PAUSE]
We are not to live lives that are Apollinarian.
Apollinarians think that God
doesn't become fully Human,
that He puts on a human costume.
A god in a human costume is
not being true
either to himself
or to human beings.
God is the Truth
and He loves us,
so He can't pretend to be human.
He becomes human
in order to be true to us
and to join us to Him.
If we live Apollinarian lives
then we see God as remote
and not fullyy invested in what we do
or who we are.
If we live Apollinarian lives,
then we push God away from us,
not trusting Him to be fully on our side,
rather than inviting Him
in to our lives.
[PAUSE]
We are not to live Nestorian lives.
Nestorians think that
you can separate Jesus the Man
from Christ the God.
They say that Mary is
only the mother of the human bit
of Jesus,
not His God bit.
The Nestorian life says that
we can live human lives
every day of the week
but we have to be Christian
on a Sunday.
The Nestorian life says
we can keep God in
a separate part of our lives
and can live out the rest
without worrying about
His involvement in the rest.
But we are to lead lives
Inseparably with God.
We recognise Our Lady
as the Mother of God
and see that God is truly present
in our Humanity
so that we lead lives
in order to be truly present
in His Divinity.
[PAUSE]
We are not to lead lives
in which we think that
being God and being human
are the same.
While we cannot separate
Jesus' humanity and His divinity,
we cannot pretend that
they are the same thing.
Jesus is human,
so He has every aspect
of being human.
Jesus is God,
so He has every aspect
of being God.
Jesus' human nature
lives co-operating with His
divine nature.
We have to live lives
In which we too
co-operate with God,
neither seeing ourselves in charge
nor leaving everything
up to God.
Our will is saved
by choosing God.
We are saved through God's grace
and co-operating
with that grace.
[PAUSE]
We are not to lead Ikonoclast lives.
Ikonoclasts believe
that the image of God
should not make us long to worship.
They do not believe
that an ikon can be holy.
They cannot tell the difference
between an ikon and an idol.
Living the ikonoclast life
means not seeing God
as being really present
alongside His creation.
Ikonoclasts separate God
from His creation.
For them,
a photograph of Our Lord
would not stir up
any desire to worship Him.
They do not believe that
venerating an ikon
means that the veneration
is meant for who is in the ikon,
just as the kissing of a picture
of your mother
is an expression of your love for her
not for the picture.
We are to live in a world of ikons
reflecting God in the world around,
relating creation back to God
acting on our worship of God
through acts of veneration
whenever we are aware of His presence.
We are to live in a world of ikons
and using them to learn
how to become aware
of His presence again.
[PAUSE]
We are to live lives
which reflect
the Father, Son and Holy Ghost
as being real, supreme
and always with us,
always willing to associate with us,
always present
to love us,
forgive us
have mercy on us,
draw us,
save us,
and bring us to Him.
We do believe in one God,
Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
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