Friday, November 12 : Isaac of Stella

Just as the head and the body of a person make one and the same person, so the son of the Virgin and his members, the chosen ones, make one and the same person and one single Son of Man. This is the total and complete Christ, the head and the body, of which Scripture speaks. Yes, all the members together form one single body, which with its head, constitutes the one and only Son of Man who, with the Son of God, constitutes the one and only Son of God, just as he together with God constitutes one single God. Thus the entire body, with its head, is Son of Man and Son of God, and consequently God. Whence this word: “That all may be one as you, Father, are in me, and I in you; I pray that they may be [one] in us.” That is why, in conformity with this frequent affirmation of Scripture, the body does not exist without the head, nor does the head exist without the body, any more than the head and the body exist without God. That is the total Christ… Thus the believers, the spiritual members of Christ, can all say in truth that they are what he himself is, which is to say, the Son of God and God. But what he is by nature, they are as associated members; what he is in fullness, they are through participation. In short, if he is the Son of God because of his origin, his members are sons of God… through adoption, according to what the apostle Paul said: “You have received a spirit of adoption through which we cry out, ‘Abba!’ (that is, ‘Father’).” (Rom 8:15) With this Spirit, “he empowered them to become children of God” (Jn 1:12), so that, according to the teaching of “the first-born of many brothers” (Rom 8:29), they might learn to say: “Our Father in heaven.” (Mt 6:9)

maronite readings – rosary,team