The Christian Faith
This section of the website provides more extended teaching on larger content areas, such as the Creed and the Sacraments. It begins with Introduction·to the Christian Faith. More content will be added in due course.
The section entitled Short Talks comprises stand-alone talks and articles on different aspects of the Christian Faith, including the teaching of Jesus, the seasons of the Church’s Year and Feasts and Festivals.·
Meaning of the Crucifixion
The Good Shepherd
You will remember that, when Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, he drove all the market men and their animals out of the temple courtyard. As a result of this the Jewish rulers began to plan how they could have him crucified, that is nailed to death on a cross, before the end of the week.
It would, of course, have been a simple matter for Jesus to slip away from Jerusalem to some place of safety. Indeed, even as late as Maundy Thursday evening, when Judas had gone to fetch Our Lord’s enemies, he could easily have escaped over the hills and so have avoided all that the Devil and his human agents were planning to do to him. He knew this very well, and yet he deliberately stayed behind in the Garden of Gethsemane to be arrested and crucified.
The Crucifixion and the Eucharist
Maundy Thursday
Jesus had always known that his enemies, led on by the Devil, would crucify him, but when towards the end of his Ministry he began to tell his Apostles, they found it very difficult to take it in. They thought that the worst possible thing that could happen would be for Jesus to be killed, and when on Maundy Thursday they realised he was in danger, two of them bought a sword each so that they could defend him and so help him to escape and save his life. But, so far from running away he was ready, like the Good Shepherd, to stand his ground and to give himself and his life for us upon the Cross.
The Blessed Sacrament
Although God is everywhere, yet when he became a human being in the Person of Our Lord Jesus Christ, it meant that the people who lived in Palestine at that time were able to find him. So, when Jesus came from Heaven and was born in Bethlehem, you had only to make your way there with the shepherds and the Wise Men, and you could look on God himself who was living a human life in a human Body. Thus, for 30 years, one had only to find Our Lord to find God.