Theological Foundations new file

56 Theological Foundations of this is surpassed by God who has given Himself to you as spiritual nourishment: true God and true Man. He is the One who created you; the One who redeemed you; the One who will judge you.” 1 Father Stanislaus emphasizes the fact that even though Jesus is the Son of God, He also called Himself the Son of Man. However, man often errs and understands the Divine in merely human terms. Hence, many of Jesus’ contemporaries considered Him to be only a man. He was to them the son of a carpenter and if He did drive the evil spirits out, He did it, in their belief, not by His own power but by the power of their evil prince — Beelzebub. Yet, St. Peter, more enlightened than the oth- ers, denied these erroneous opinions about Jesus and stated that He is “the Son of the living God” (Mt 16, 16). For this statement he was appointed to the highest office in the Church and is to us an example of faith in the God-Man. 2 Apparently it was not an easy faith since the Pharisees could not accept it, the proof of which can be found in their many conversations with Christ. This is evident even at that point when one of them asked Him the tricky question about the greatest com- mandment of the Law (cf. Mt 22, 36). Father Stanislaus calls the Pharisees the unhappy people for even though they had the living Truth right before them, they did not believe it and did not accept the teaching which they heard, rather, they tried to put Jesus to a test. 3 It is Father Stanislaus’s desire to awaken in others, especially in those who come to the Lord’s Table, an awareness that it is necessary for them to recognize Christ’s divinity. The following text of his meditation before receiving the Holy Communion may serve as an example illus- trating this desire: “The houses visited by kings become famous, the thresholds crossed by priests and others servants of God become blessed. And what to think about a soul whose chamber is entered by pure Love, whose dwelling is visited by the King of Kings, the Highest Priest of the Melchizedek’s rite? The kings bestow riches upon those whom they visit, adorn them with honors or ennoble them with coats of arms; the priests give bless- ings to those they visit. But our Lord, Jesus Christ, as the richest King,