He Is Risen

By H. M. Hyra

He Is Risen is meant to be three sections, each representing an important component of the Catholic faith.

"A Portrait of Jesus" presents our Savior in a way that may not be obvious to the casual reader. The Bible is an inspired book dealing with a real world with spiritual overtones. When reading the New Testament, it may not be so obvious that Jesus is basically revealing something about the Catholic faith, which is needed in order for the reader to grow in the faith. However, if Jesus is God and, therefore, allknowing, he is not trying to add to his personal knowledge but presenting himself so as to be a model for how a person ought to approach the faith. He also reveals his spiritual self as related to the Father and the Holy Spirit.

"Defense of the Faith" gives the faithful an opportunity to answer questions often asked by the unbeliever. Included are brief resumes of individuals considered to have an atheistic outlook. A section involving basic heresies that have attacked the Catholic Church over the ages is included. A sample of apparitions where the Virgin Mary became involved with nonbelievers' attack on the faith makes for interesting reading.

"America: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow" discusses how America became the strongest nation in the world. However, modern days have found the USA in competition with foreign nations. Also, the nation has become divided as the separation of church and state has forced power politics to be the order of the day. The text looks at the Obama era as well as Trump's victory over Hillary Clinton. The Trump era is compared to the latest victory of Joe Biden. It is an interesting contrast, and only time will tell if the nation can adjust to a polarization that now exists. The text views four alternatives and how America's choice may affect the nation for years to come.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Apr 6, 2022
• ISBN: 9781639034154

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He Is Risen

H. M. Hyra

ISBN 978-1-63903-414-7 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-63903-415-4 (digital)

Copyright © 2022 by H. M. Hyra

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Notes

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A Portrait of Jesus

A Catholic Perspective

1

A Portrait of Jesus

A portrait of a person, a group of people, or simply a lovely landscape are very different from a snapshot taken by someone with a camera. A portrait is a creation by an individual who for very specific reasons uses a canvas where paints of various colors try and capture an effect pertaining to beauty as seen by one or by many.

A Portrait of Jesus attempts to depict the fullness of our Lord’s existence as seen through his humanity and divinity. The text uses various frames of reference which help to define Jesus as a reality-based person who came into the world with a purpose of spiritual magnitude.

A Portrait of Jesus is an attempt to concentrate on Jesus Christ as the second Person of the blessed Trinity who for a short time lived on this earth with both a divine and human nature. By the use of the four Gospels and reflections of Saint Paul and other prominent experts, our text is meant to portray the life of Jesus as the most significant event in human history. The life of Jesus is significant for he represents God’s gift to man where eternal life is the promise that humans have been created to fulfill God’s divine providence. The plan of God for all of creation reveals his great love and his desire to share his essence with mankind.

Using a Roman Catholic perspective, the text’s emphasis is also on what the faith calls consubstantiation. This Catholic teaching reveals to the faithful that the Trinity is one. Wherever Jesus is, there also are the Father and the Holy Spirit in some way, best understood in terms of mystery. Each person of the Trinity is God, for there is no division where God is concerned. The Trinity is the greatest of the Christian’s mysteries.

Another mystery of the Catholic faith is the incarnation. God became man with a human and divine nature. The church uses the term hypostatic union. As the text unfolds, its purpose is to explore the life of Jesus, and here the reader can be exposed to the words and deeds that can be interpreted as both human and divine. This becomes clearer as the text points to definitive places in Jesus’s life.

Jesus is like us in all ways except sin.

A Portrait of Jesus intends to explore both Jesus’s divine and human natures, expanding upon the known by creating a landscape where his physical, mental, and spiritual components are magnified by the use of reason, faith, and revelation.

Top-to-Bottom or Bottom-to-Top Diagram

Study the diagram that follows, and get a mental picture of how Jesus uses his humanity and divinity to enlighten humankind when dealing with the world and eternity. The diagram illustrates that humans will try and understand Jesus’s actions in relation to how his actions can be interpreted using a human perspective.

Jesus the Teacher informs by his human nature. Yet Jesus’s divinity claims that he knows what man thinks and what will happen, for his eternal presence cannot be separate, so the mystery of his human nature is only understood from both his humanity and his divinity.

The expression alpha and omega deals with Jesus referring to life from the beginning to the end of the world as we know it. Top to bottom, indicated by the arrow, acknowledges Jesus’s divinity where the now position represented by the arrow that is indicative of Jesus and his total understanding of life where there is no past and present. The bottom-to-top arrow signifies Jesus and his humanity where he lived in time as represented by the past, now, and the future. The human perspective treats Jesus as if he lived according to the bottom-to-top scenario.

Our text will emphasize the life of Jesus as both divine and human, trying to emphasize both aspects of his nature.

Jesus perspective: In the pages that follow, the text deals with Jesus and his humanity and divinity. This is not to say that we are separating Jesus from the Father and Holy Spirit. The Trinity presents the greatest of Christian mysteries, but man, created in likeness and image, can reflect on certain conditions.

known—unknown—mystery—beyond

reason—faith—revelation

Reason tells us that things can be known and there are circumstances that remain unknown to the rational mind. Mystery is part of the human condition, and the church recognizes that Scripture alludes to God in terms of being beyond what man can understand by reason alone.

So it is through faith and revelation that man can be lifted to a higher level of understanding. The Father and the Holy Spirit are part of the process. But it is Jesus who walked the earth for a short period of time, who teaches us many things about being human as well as bringing God’s domain into focus. It is in this light that a portrait of Jesus expresses God’s desire to make the Trinity acceptable to all who seek God with a sincere and pure heart.

Let us, with help of God’s grace, be enlightened to prospects that deal with God on a level which begins with our earthly journey and ends with the eternal promise that we are heirs to the kingdom of God.

Transcendent God

The Father (Briefly)

Scripture proclaims that the Father is the Creator of the heavens and the earth. In the Old Testament, he is the authority figure, and Scripture clearly defends the position that he disciplines the chosen people, especially after their departure from Egypt. The Father is the Grantor of gifts and the cause for the uniqueness of each individual born of woman. Because this text concentrates on Jesus, we will terminate our brief summary now.

The Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit is the third Person of the blessed Trinity. The Holy Spirit is said to be begotten by the Father and the Son, a loving relationship which is integrated into the personhood of those who have received the sacrament of baptism. Symbolically the Holy Spirit is presented in terms of peace, which is represented by a dove. The symbol of fire presents the burning away of sin while the water is the cleansing action and the wind expresses the fullness of God’s presence where no man can determine the actions of the Lord.

The gifts of the Holy Spirit include the following: knowledge, understanding, wisdom, council, piety, fortitude, and fear of the Lord, which are interior actions that guide man to make proper choices on the road to eternal life with God.

God

Father

Remember where Jesus is.

The mystery of the Trinity’s

power is that the Father and

the Holy Spirit are present.

J

E

S

U

S

Holy Spirit

The following is an outline pertaining to Jesus as the second Person of the blessed Trinity. A brief description will follow involving each part of the outline which we will build on as the text expands Jesus’s role as Savior of all humanity.

incarnation

Jesus, as the Incarnation, dwelled among his people and became flesh carrying out the will of the Father. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, humanity has been blessed by God’s grace and made heirs to the kingdom of God.

Jesus

A Portrait of Jesus will concentrate on the second Person of the blessed Trinity, using divine providence with arc of existence as a reference. The text is not meant to present all possibilities, for the mystery of Christ remains beyond human comprehension.

So God’s one nature in the love that he has for all his creation has created man to participate in his glory forever. Jesus is many things, but one of his greatest attributes is that he is an objective model, which no other religion has, that influences proper choices for the benefit of all of God’s creation.

Whether demonstrating his humanity or divinity, Jesus was a Teacher of the highest persuasion. The reader of the text must ask the question: What was Jesus espousing when he acted or spoke knowing his message helps to promote the salvation all mankind?

Jesus and His Humanity

In speaking to his disciples about when the end would come, Jesus’s response was Only the Father knows and seems to favor him speaking in human terms. The church speaks of Jesus before the Father pleading our case for salvation. Of course, his divinity knows our final destination. When he chides the apostles for not staying awake before his final hours, he demonstrated his humanity and taught a lesson that human emotion often takes front stage when in pressure-packed situations.

My God, my God why have you forsaken me? (Mark 15:34)

This small passage from Scripture must be viewed in terms of Jesus’s humanity, for surely he knew the Father would never forsake him. The faithful are asked to remember that Jesus’s actions are prompted by his desire that there is a lesson that teaches us about life lived in a world of reality-based spirituality.

Jesus and His Humanity and Divinity

When reading Scripture, the faithful is asked to view Jesus in a variety of settings. An interesting passage from the Bible that shines forth both Jesus’s humanity and divinity gives us pause to reflect:

If possible, let this cup pass from me, yet, not as I will but as you will. (Matthew 26:39)

Despite the heavy burden of the crucifixion, Jesus teaches us that when it comes to our own desires, our spiritual nature ought to take precedence. Jesus is often put in a situation that requires his will to balance outcomes. In the "transfiguration," Jesus’s divinity acts with a spiritual sense, for he must act where Moses and Elijah are present yet at the same time there is the humanity of Peter, James, and John to deal with.

Jesus and His Divinity

A Portrait of Jesus includes a view of Jesus’s divinity. We must remember that Jesus’s days on earth were marked with a divine mandate that he do the will of the Father. In our everyday dealings with the real world, truth is often confused with our own self-interest. Jesus’s divinity promised truth with an abundance of God-given gifts.

Jesus said, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and if you followed him, we would be set free and the peace of God would fill our hearts.

Jesus knew that his peace was not how man would envision things were, and human pride would be overwhelmed by the Spirit of the Lord. Jesus knew what was in man’s heart, and he preached repentance where God’s mercy would overcome one’s tendency for sin.

Jesus had command over nature as many of his miracles dealt with changing nature’s ways. He calmed the sea and moved mountains and walked on water. He was a Healer, a Preacher, and a Teacher who moved men’s hearts, bringing conversion and change that reflected his Father’s will.

The faithful have an advantage over those who worry and fret over circumstances that the human condition imposes upon all humans who seek their own way. If we can but imagine our Lord as a divine friend who knows our plight and longs to help us no matter how difficult our trail and no matter what sins have darkened our way. He calls us to repent and be glad, for his unconditional love graces our very being.

When Pilate chastised Jesus, saying he could have him killed, he replied, Do you not think I could call My Father and he would provide at this moment more than twelve legions of angels (Matthew 26:53).

The Father and I are one. (John 10:30)

The Bible presents Jesus in the light of his divinity where he did not accept testimony from humans nor did he need human praise. Demons recognized him for what he was and feared the power he could display when challenged.

For although Jesus was divine, his presence among people was not condescending, but those with him would reap the benefits of talking with someone who knew them as a friend, who did not judge but deeply felt their need for compassion.

Jesus Before Creation of the World

God lives an eternal life which existed before the creation of the world. The Bible, in numerous places, attests to God’s domain where Scripture says, His ways are not our ways. The faithful will live forever after their earthly death, where joy and his glory will become our permanent home for everlasting life.

He was known before the foundation of the world but revealed in the final time for you, who through him believed in God who raised the dead and gave glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. (1 Peter 1:20–21; emphasis mine)

He saved us and called us to a holy life, not by works according to our works, but according to his own design and the grace bestowed on us in Christ Jesus before time began, but now made manifest through the appearance of our savior Christ Jesus who destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. (Timothy 1:9–10; emphasis mine)

Can one sense how infinitesimally small the universe is compared to God’s domain? God’s spiritual domain will be revealed to the faithful, an eternal gift that lasts forever.

General Observations Pertaining to Jesus

The Lamb of God

Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. By the blood of the Lamb, we are saved and can choose eternal life as our final resting place.

One may ask how man by his own means could forge a plan that would involve repentance for his sins. For a Catholic, this is not necessary, for Jesus came for the redemption of our sins as directed by the will of the Father. In the Old Testament, sacrifice was instituted by the blood of a lamb that was without blemish. In the book of Revelation, Jesus is spoken of as the Lamb of God.

The Good Shepherd

As the Good Shepherd, Jesus’s actions were to protect all his flock from Satan and his followers. Each of us ought to believe we have a Savior dedicated to our personal welfare.

Jesus went around to all towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and curing every disease and ill ness. At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned like sheep without a Sheppard. (Matthew 9:35–36)

Jesus was a kind and generous person. His humanity was evident and his demeanor conducive to someone who people would admire. As the Good Shepherd, both his humanity and his divinity could not be separated, for Jesus healed and taught the doctrine of truth and compassion. At the same time, he would give up his life in a most horrible manner. From all eternity, God knew that Jesus would come, for the sins of a human race are in need of a divine intercessor.

The Suffering Servant