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With the Father and with Us

  • DIETRICH VON HILDEBRAND

Christ does not stand before us at one time as a man and another time as God.


trinityjjkjIn the numerous texts of the Gospel, which penetrate the entire Liturgy, in the feasts of the liturgical year, Christ's humanity unfolds before our eyes in its full concreteness and reality….  The Mediator, the Savior, the Logos made flesh...

Christ does not stand before us at one time as a man and another time as God, but as the God-man, as a man whose every word, every attitude, every act, and whose entire visible human being testifies to his divinity, and is an epiphany of God...

Christ is both the eternal Word of the Father addressed to us, God's epiphany, and the Mediator between us and God, our head through whom alone we may adequately adore God.  Christ eternally turns his face both toward the Father and toward us.  He is not only one who leads us to God, like Moses; he not only stands at the side of humanity looking up at God together with humanity and leading it to God, but he also stands before us, as the self-revelation of God, as he who speaks to Philip: Philip, he that sees me, sees the Father also; and of whom Saint John says: And we saw his glory, glory as of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth….

We find in the Liturgy both these aspects in their mysterious interpenetration.  In the Holy Mass, we sacrifice with Christ, our head; he is turned toward the Father, and he does not turn away from the Father when in Holy Communion his face is turned toward us; and through this communion of love with him we are ­received through his holy humanity into his Godhood.

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Acknowledgement

vonhildebranddDietrich von Hildebrand. "With the Father and with Us." from Liturgy and Personality. (Steubenville, OH: Hildebrand Project, 2016).

Reprinted with permission of the Hildebrand Project.

The Author

hildebrand2hildebrand1Dietrich von Hildebrand (1889-1977) was a German philosopher known for his seminal works in ethics, aesthetics, social philosophy, and philosophy of religion. He was one of Europe’s most outspoken voices against Nazism and Communism. Pope John Paul II greatly admired the work of Hildebrand as did Pope Pius XII and Pope Benedict XVI. He is the author of many books, including Transformation In Christ In Defense of Purity, Marriage: The Mystery of Faithful Love, Liturgy and Personality, My Battle Against Hitler: Faith, Truth, and Defiance in the Shadow of the Third ReichThe Nature of LoveHumility: Wellspring of Virtue, and The Dietrich von Hildebrand LifeGuide.

Copyright © 2016 Hildebrand Project