PALM SUNDAY PERSPECTIVES
I have for a very long time marveled that God would be concerned with man, that God would even consider man, as the scribe in Psalms 8:3-4 has written:
"When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them "
The implied question is fair.
Given "everlasting to everlasting" as the spatial domain of God and existing outside of the confines of time , itself, how could God know, much less care, about those who claim to be made in God's likeness and image : male and female; who are constrained by time and space?
The ancient African philosopher, Origen, of the 3rd century writes on this question, man as God, of in his book ON FIRST PRINCIPLES:
"Now if we consider how in a very few years, although those who profess Christianity are persecuted and some put to death on account of it while others suffer the loss of their possessions, yet the word has been able, in spite of the fewness of its teachers, to be 'preached everywhere in the world ' (cf. Mt. 24:14) so that Greeks and barbarians, wise and foolish (cf. Rom. 1:14) have adopted the religion of Jesus, we shall not hesitate to say that this achievement is more than human, remembering that Jesus taught with all authority and convincing power that his word should prevail (cf. Mk 13:31).
"Consequently we may reasonably regard as oracles these utterances of his such as, 'Ye shall be brought before kings and governors for my sake, for a testimony to them and to the Gentiles' (Mr. 10:18; Mk 13:9); and .... 'Many shall say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we not eat in thy name and drink in thy name and in thy name cast out daemons? And I shall say unto them, Depart from me ye workers of iniquity; I never knew you ' (Mt. 7:22, 23; Lk. 13:26). Now there was once a possibility that in uttering these words he was talking idly, because they were not true; but when words spoken with such authority have come to pass it shows that God has really become man and delivered to men the doctrine of salvation."
P. 336-338, Book IV, Ch.1, "Greek"
Pope Benedict XVI says of Origen:
"Origen of Alexandria truly was a figure crucial to the whole development of Christian thought."
PALM SUNDAY PERSPECTIVES
I have for a very long time marveled that God would be concerned with man, that God would even consider man, as the scribe in Psalms 8:3-4 has written:
"When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them "
The implied question is fair.
Given "everlasting to everlasting" as the spatial domain of God and existing outside of the confines of time , itself, how could God know, much less care, about those who claim to be made in God's likeness and image : male and female; who are constrained by time and space?
The ancient African philosopher, Origen, of the 3rd century writes on this question, man as God, of in his book ON FIRST PRINCIPLES:
"Now if we consider how in a very few years, although those who profess Christianity are persecuted and some put to death on account of it while others suffer the loss of their possessions, yet the word has been able, in spite of the fewness of its teachers, to be 'preached everywhere in the world ' (cf. Mt. 24:14) so that Greeks and barbarians, wise and foolish (cf. Rom. 1:14) have adopted the religion of Jesus, we shall not hesitate to say that this achievement is more than human, remembering that Jesus taught with all authority and convincing power that his word should prevail (cf. Mk 13:31).
"Consequently we may reasonably regard as oracles these utterances of his such as, 'Ye shall be brought before kings and governors for my sake, for a testimony to them and to the Gentiles' (Mr. 10:18; Mk 13:9); and .... 'Many shall say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we not eat in thy name and drink in thy name and in thy name cast out daemons? And I shall say unto them, Depart from me ye workers of iniquity; I never knew you ' (Mt. 7:22, 23; Lk. 13:26). Now there was once a possibility that in uttering these words he was talking idly, because they were not true; but when words spoken with such authority have come to pass it shows that God has really become man and delivered to men the doctrine of salvation."
P. 336-338, Book IV, Ch.1, "Greek"
Pope Benedict XVI says of Origen:
"Origen of Alexandria truly was a figure crucial to the whole development of Christian thought."