The Lord is Risen! This is an abbreviated outline of one of Thomas Aquinas’s homilies for the season of Easter. Besides being crisp and illuminating, it shows how he labored to extract every last grain of meaning from every pronouncement of Scripture. I think it’s an excellent model.
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Christ said, “I came from the Father and have come into the world; again, I am leaving the world and going to the Father." – John 16:28.
He “came forth from the Father” for three reasons: To He might manifest the Father in the world; to declare His Father's will to us; and to show the Father's love towards us.
He “came into the world” for three reasons: To enlighten it; to reconcile it to God the Father; and to deliver it from the power of the Devil.
He “left the world” for three reasons: Because of its wickedness; because of the perversity of its ingratitude; and to give us an example – “Do not love the world or the things in the world”; “You are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world.”
He “ascended to the Father” for three reasons: That he might intercede with Him for us; that He might give to us the Holy Spirit; and that He might prepare for us a place with the Father.
To which place may He lead us. Amen.