CONSUBSTANTIAL
INTRODUCTION
This will be a short homily for December 18th - because it’s going to complicated and
confusing. The topic is Jesus as God - and Jesus as equal with the Holy
Spirit to and with the Father. How could anyone explain the Trinity? We find it
difficult to explain ourselves and our relationships with each other.
The title of my homily is, “Consubstantial.”
Last year - for the First Sunday of Advent - the Nicean Creed which is the usual Creed for
Sunday Mass - changed in its wording from “one in being with the Father” to “consubstantial
with the Father.”
Some in the Church didn’t think “one in being with the Father”
was an exact translation from the Latin text’s words “consubstantialem Patri” -
which is a translation from the original Greek text of the Nicene Creed of the
year 325. The Greek word that early church leaders and theologians came up with
was “homoousios”. The first part of the word - that is, “homo” - means “same”. The
second part of that word “ousia” means in English “being” or “essence” - but
when you translate that second word “ousia” into Latin with the word
“substantia” you have grabbed a word that has material overtones as well. When we say “substance” we think stuff. The new translators want us to think “being”
or “essence”.
All these words have long, long, long, long histories.
It took the Catholic Church - East and West - till the year
325 at the Council of Nicea to develop and then declare Christ is one with the
Father - one in being with the Father - of the same Substance of the Father. In
other words, Jesus is God.
Further councils stressed the equality of the Holy Spirit in
this Trinity.
Further councils stressed the humanity as well as the
divinity of Christ.
TODAY’S GOSPEL
Today’s gospel text from Matthew 1: 18-25 was written before 110 A.D. and probably
around 80 to 90 A.D. It is key in all
the arguments for the next 300 to 500 years.
Matthew is very clear in pointing out that Mary become pregnant by the
Holy Spirit - without Joseph.
But Matthew wants to continue stressing as he did with yesterday’s genealogy
that Jesus is of the lineage of David and that comes through David - to Joseph -
who adopts - or takes on very courageously the calling that Mary had received
from God.
CONCLUSION
So those who translated the creed into English in the 1970’s
- chose “one in Being with the Father.”
Those who did the new translation chose “consubstantial” - substantial
having a different meaning than our word “substantial” - and the different
documents that came out said for us to try to explain all this.
Each time we
have the creed at Mass - like Sundays - we can use the Nicean or the Apostles
creed. I’ve done both - sometimes to avoid the word "consubstantial".
However, the
Apostles Creed has the phrase, “he descended into hell” and that doesn’t mean
“hell” the way we understand “hell”. It’s into the deeper areas after death
where all the dead are pictured. I’m sure that confuses people as well. At least that’s what I believe. Enough already.
What was he talking about?
