Friday, January 3 : Origen

Jesus is the one who has “sprung from the stock of Jesse” according to the flesh, “descended from the line of David according to the flesh” and “established as Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness” (Is 11,1; Rom 1,3-4). Yes, he is “the shoot from Jesse’s stock” and yet he is not a shoot who is “the Firstborn of all creation” (Col 1,15). He who is God, “the Word who was in the beginning with God” (Jn 1,1) is only a shoot, yet he who is born according to the flesh is indeed “a shoot sprung from the stock of Jesse; from his roots a flower has blossomed”… “The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, a spirit of wisdom and of understanding” (Is 11,2). The spirit of wisdom did not rest on Moses; the spirit of wisdom did not rest on Joshua; the spirit of wisdom did not rest on any of the prophets, neither Isaiah nor Jeremiah… It came on Moses, but after this visitation of the spirit of wisdom, Moses lacked faith: “Listen to me, you rebels,” he said, “are we to bring water for you from this rock?” (Num 20,10). It came down on all the righteous. It came down on Isaiah, yet what did he say? “I am a man of unclean lips and I live in the midst of a people of unclean lips” (Is 6,5)… The Spirit can indeed come down on anyone, yet it cannot find rest because all have sinned and there is not a single just person on earth who acts uprightly without falling. “There is no man free of defilement” (Jb 14,4)… The Spirit has come down on many but has rested on none. In all of Scripture there is this saying: “My spirit shall not remain in man forever, the Lord said” (Gen 6,3)… John the Baptist saw one man, one alone, on whom the Spirit rested and this was the sign that God had given him: “He on whom you see the Spirit come down and rest, he it is who is the Son of God”.

Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team