Fully human

I’d like to focus today on what it meant for Jesus’ humanity that he was raised from the dead, resurrected. 

And what does it mean for his humanity that he has ascended and sits at God’s right hand where he intercedes for us. 

Has Jesus stopped being a human being?  Did he shed his humanity when he assumed a new existence beyond the reach of death?

Well the Catechism tells us definitively that Jesus has most certainly not stopped being human.

Paragraph 665 of the Catechism tells us that “Christ’s Ascension marks the definitive entrance of Jesus’ humanity into God’s heavenly domain” CCC 665

So Jesus Christ, son or God and son of Mary, now risen from the dead and ascended to the Father, the third person of the Holy Trinity ​

is ​​still ​​fully ​​human.

He did not shed his humanity when he defeated death and rose from the dead.

Why should this matter to us?

It matters because Jesus is still ‘one of us’, still knows what we know and feels what we feel. He is still intimately connected with us and is on our side.He loves what we love and understands how much we struggle to be faithful even to our own core values. 

The writer of the letter to the Hebrews expresses it in this very reassuring way:

“For it is not as if we have a high priest who is incapable of feeling our weaknesses with us, but he has been put to the test in exactly the same way as ourselves, without sinning. Let us, then, have no fear in approaching the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace when we are in need of help.” Hebrews 4:15, 16

So as we enter this Easter season which last 50 days (whereas Lent only lasted 40 days) lets be encouraged that we are on the winning team. Jesus, our captain has gone before us. We has shown us that sin and death can be defeated, in fact have been defeated in his sacrifice on the cross.

Let’s be encouraged that someone like us has seen the other side and now intercedes for us, advocates for us, barracks for us and offers us his grace to defeat sin, to live a life of integrity here on earth and enter into eternal life with him forever in heaven.