(The Affirmation of Faith in the Son of God as God’s Holy Word fulfills the Old Testament prophecies in the New Testament belief in the Holy Gospel [Truth] that Jesus is the Christ. Previously identified at Mary’s visitation by Elizabeth’s words and those later of Peter, the profession of faith by the centurion and those with him naming Jesus as the Son of God, introduces the Liturgy of the Word in the Mass of the Catechumens.)
Matthew 27:54. Now the centurion and they that were with him watching Jesus, having seen the earthquake, and the things that were done, were sore afraid, saying: Indeed this was the Son of God.
“The Gospels report that at two solemn moments, the Baptism and the Transfiguration of Christ, the voice of the Father designates Jesus his ‘beloved Son.’ (Cf. Mt 3:17; cf. Mt 17:5.) Jesus calls himself the ‘only Son of God,’ and by this title affirms his eternal preexistence. (Jn 3:16; cf. 10:36.) He asks for faith in ‘the name of the only Son of God.’ (Jn 3:18.) In the centurion’s exclamation before the crucified Christ, ‘Truly this man was the Son of God,’ (Mk 15:39.) that Christian confession is already heard. Only in the Paschal mystery can the believer give the title ‘Son of God’ its full meaning” (CCC, 444).
Our Father, 10 Hail Marys (contemplating the mystery), Glory Be and Fatima Prayer.
Excerpt from The Holy Family Rosary:
This meditation is acknowledgment that the Liturgy of the Word immediately springs forth from the Solemnity of the Lord in unison with the centurion and the other witnesses who were present, their account being the first “new” testimony after Jesus’ death that Jesus is truly the Son of God in fulfillment of Jesus’ earlier prayer: “As thou hast sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for them do I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. And not for them only do I pray, but for them also who through their word shall believe in me; That they all may be one, as thou, Father, in me, and I in thee; that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.”[1] The New Testament Gospel of Jesus Christ is God’s Good News and reason to continually reaffirm our faith in saying, “I [we] believe”.[2]
The Venerable St. Bede wrote of this firm belief saying: “Believing Him is believing that what He says is true. Believing in Him is believing that He is God. Believing `towards’ Him is loving Him. Many people, even bad people, believe that God tells the truth; they believe it is the truth and they do not want to, are too lazy to follow the way truth points. Believing that He is God is something the devils are able to do. But believing and tending towards Him is true only of those who love God, who are Christians not in name only but whose actions and lives prove them to be so. For without love faith is of no avail. With love, it is the faith of a Christian; without love, it is the faith of the devil.”[3] God Bless His saints!
In wonder of this event well beyond that day, St. Gregory the Great said: “What follows pleases us greatly: ‘Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.’ For undoubtedly it is we who are meant, who confess with our soul Him whom we have not seen in the flesh. It refers to us, provided we live in accordance with the faith, for only he who truly believes practices what he believes… By St. Paul saying ‘faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things unseen,’[4] it becomes clear that faith has to do with things which are not seen, for those which are seen are no longer the object of faith, but rather of experience. Well then, why is Thomas told, when he saw and touched, ‘Because you have seen, you have believed?’ Because he saw one thing, and believed another. It is certain that mortal man cannot see divinity; therefore, he saw the man and recognized Him as God, saying, ‘My Lord and my God.’ In conclusion: seeing, he believed, because contemplating that real man he exclaimed that He was God, whom he could not see.”[5]
O Happy Chance! that one day the fullness of truth be as openly revered as the next event bearing holy witness of the death of this spotless, unblemished Lamb. Jesus said: “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he hath sent. They said therefore to him: What sign therefore dost thou shew, that we may see, and may believe thee? What dost thou work?”[6] The meditation that follows identifies this promise that even Moses foretold – that another would come to fulfill the redemption of man. The Sacrifice of the Cross forever satisfies this remembrance when revealed as the Sacrifice of the Mass with the offering of His Body and the outpouring, as promised, of His Most Precious Blood.
[1] Jn. 17:18-21.
[2] Apostles and Nicene Creeds
[3] Super Iac. Expositio, ad loc.
[4] Heb. 11:1.
[5] In Evangelia Homiliae, 26, 9; 27, 8.
[6] Jn. 6:28-30.
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