5th Sunday after Easter
By Father Scott Archer May 17, 2020 “I leave the world and I go to the Father” (John 16:28). As a man, in His human nature, Jesus told His disciples that He was going to the Father. As God, He was and always had been, with the Father and the Holy Spirit; one God with Three Divine Persons. He spoke here in His human nature because in His human nature He suffered, died, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven. This is a part of the mystery of the Incarnation, by which Christ united humanity to God. However, through the sacraments, mankind receives the divine life of God in their souls; that is, sanctifying grace. The Catechism of the Council of Trent states, “He vouchsafed to become man in order that we men might be born again as children of God.” It was necessary for Him to ascend to the Father that we may receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. We are born again through the Sacrament of Baptism, and this grace is increased in us through the other sacraments, o...