SAINT  ATHANASIUS

INTRODUCTION

Today is the feast of Saint Athanasius - so a few words about him on his feast day - May 2^nd.  

His dates are 295 to May 2, 373 - 78 years of life. Nice....

He’s born in Alexandria, Egypt - which had a lot of Christians in his time. It had a great catechetical school - and it was a central educational center. Numbers of Christians back then in that city - I’m not that scholarly.  Right now Egypt has 92 million people - 10% who are Christian.  270,000 are Catholics - and the pope went to see them a week ago or so. I was trying to find out if he went to Alexandria - where there was a bombing of a Coptic Church about 10 years ago. It looks like he just went to Cairo. I assume security was tough, tough stuff.

So Athanasius was Egyptian for starters - but he was part of the Egyptian culture of the 300’s.

In the Church - it was the time of trying to pull together the great teachings about Christ - and the Trinity.

Cardinal Newman - said that Athanasius was key in conveying further along the way,  “the sacred truths of Christianity.” 

The Christ born of Mary - the Christ who walked our roads - breathed our air - healed and helped people - the Christ crucified on the Cross - the Risen Christ of Easter -  was and always was, God and will always be God. So too the 3rd person in God - the Holy Spirit.

So our religion is all about hearing about, meeting God in person - in the 3 persons in the Holy Trinity.

Our religion has doctrines and creeds - but the key experience is to enter into a relationship with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

SUGGESTION - THEOLOGY AT OUR FINGER TIPS

I’m sure you’ve heard in a dozen homilies the Orthodox as well as Eastern Catholic way of making the sign of the cross. These 3 fingers are brought together at their tips: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Then the pinky and 4^th finger are bent over - and the tips of those two fingers touch the palm of our hands. These 2 fingers symbolize the humanity and divinity of Christ.

So there it is at our finger tips as we make the sign of the cross - in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Cross my heart and hope to die.

Suggestion: that would be a good way to sit down in a quiet chair in our home or here at church - and enter into the Holy Trinity.

AA

The main nemesis of Athanasius’ life was a priest name Arius - who almost destroyed Christianity. Arius dates are 256-336. He was from Libya - but settled in Alexandria for a while.  Arius  said that Jesus as God was not equal to God the Father - but born in time.

St. Athanasius stood up to Arius and anyone who did not see the 3 persons in the Trinity as equal and forever.

God is a Trinity - 3 persons, 1 God.

All 3 persons have always been - God.

All 3 persons are infinite

All 3 persons are equal - but distinct.

It is difficult - to get this - in fact we won’t - we are not God. 

Yet St. Athanasius said, “The Son of God became man so that we might become God.”

EXILE

St. Athanasius was not killed - he was not a martyr - like Stephen in today's first reading from Acts 7: 51-8:1.  Yet he was persecuted and hunted. He went into exile 5 times because of his beliefs - and his standing up to those who denied the divinity of Jesus Christ.

As I was reading about this last night, I found out that one motive for Arius and others - was to simplify the idea of who Christ was.  Son means son - and sons come along in time. Well, Christ was son - the Son of God - but always being begotten by the Father.

That’s mystery - and we don’t get it.

But we have all eternity - now and for all eternity  to enter into God and get deeper and deeper into God.

CONCLUSION

So that's a few ideas about Athanasius. Type his name into Google and see where that takes you.