Food for the Journey

*Recipe of the Week*

No Bake Cookie Mounds

We must nourish our body as well as our soul. Let us steward well the temple God has given us! 

Ingredients

• 1½ cups organic creamy peanut butter
• 1 cup GF oat flour (either blend oats in a dry blender to make or buy the flour pre-made)
• ⅔ cup GF rolled or sprouted oats (I like Bob’s Red Mill)
• ½ cup maple syrup
• ¼ cup  collagen 
• ¼ cup ground flaxseed
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• ¼ tsp sea salt
• ½ cup dark chocolate chips
• flaky sea salt for topping
• Optional: ½ cup clean-ingredient dark chocolate coated candies (using 2-3 to top each cookie, you can leave off if you like but..todo means todo)
• Additionally, you may need 1-2 tbsp melted coconut oil if batter is too dry/crumbly

Directions

1. Stir together the dry ingredients in a large bowl (oats, oat flour, flaxseed, sea salt + collagen).
2. In a smaller bowl, whisk together the maple syrup, peanut butter + vanilla extract until smooth.
3. Pour the wet ingredients in with the dry and stir until well-mixed. The batter should be dry enough that it doesn’t stick to your hands, and wet enough not to crumble. If too dry, add in 1-2 tbsp melted coconut oil. If too wet, add in 1-2 tbsp more oat flour.
4. Stir in dark chocolate chips.
5. Use an ice cream scoop or your hands and either scoop or roll into large balls (or whatever size you prefer).
6. If adding coated candies, press 2-3 into the tops of each balls, then sprinkle with flaky sea salt.
7. Store in freezer for at least 30 minutes before eating, or 1-2 hours in the fridge.
8. Will last well in the fridge for 7-10 days and the freezer for 2 months.
   

Our Highlighted Reflection Of The Week

Reflection on the fundamentals of Christology

In his book Fundamentals of Christology, Fr. Kereszty dedicates part three to the exploration of what is known as ‘systemic Christology’. This branch of theology is concerned with reflecting upon various questions and explorations pertaining to hermeneutics and interactions among philosophy, theology, history, and even science while wrestling with questions on anthropology, revelation, dogma, and the cultivation of doctrine therein. Soteriology, Christology, Ecclesiology, Eschatology, and Trinitarian theology reflects on questions of hermeneutics especially about the relationship among theology, philosophy, history, and the modern sciences. In turn, it focuses on theological questions about anthropology, revelation and faith, dogma and the development of doctrines.

 Fr. Kereszty, in part three of his writings, presents a well nourished progression of systematic Christology alongside contemporary interplay, while maintaining a proper awareness and complimentary harmony to the first two portions of his book Fundamentals of Christology. Kereszty addresses that "in addition to Jesus' self-awareness as the Son I also assumed a direct (objective) vision of the Father in the earthly Jesus" (#71, p 391). Thus, Kereszty is emphasizing the need he saw in upholding the divinity of Jesus as the Son of God without compromising the intensity and relevance of Jesus’ earthly life. 

It is in light of Jesus’ earthly existence as fully man, that Kereszty expounds upon systematic Christology. Kereszty appears to highlight one particular nuance that presents itself authentically, gently, and yet boldly- there can never be a life without love and love is why Christ was born, and Love was for Whom He lived. Overall, one of the most remarkable aspects of Kereszty’s book is that he illustrates with immense beauty, the delicate details surrounding the birth, the overall reason behind Christ’s birth, and the merit this bears in the realm of Christology. 

When Christ was born, there had been a cacophonous note of moral discord, one that was initiated by the first man and then had infected the whole of humanity. God, in His great splendor and power, could have ignored it. He could have left us to our own demise, but such an act would violate the justice with which He handled His creation. Yes, humans maintain an intellect and will-both gifts from God- however original sin changes and alters the manner in which man and woman alike are then able to receive and live for, from, and in the truth of who God is. The results of the fall alter the creation’s relationship with the Creation. Thus, immediately after having given them the gift of the garden, God gives them a positive command (cf. Gn2:16), followed by a negative one (cf. Gn 2:17), this in turn is the essential difference between God and humanity.With this in mind, Kereszty points to how God used a representation of humanity, a woman named Mary, to freely participate with Him so that He Himself could take on the nature of humanity and thus redeem it. Thus, the point being magnified and illuminated here is that Christ, who shares in the Divinity of God, receives His manhood through Mary’s fiat and cooperation with God will, a beautiful masterpiece indeed, one that applies to our own cooperation with God’s will. 

Similar to other presentations of contemporary Christologies, Kereszty draws upon the systematic Christology of Han Ur Van Balthazar, with salvation in Christ "as a revelation of divine love" (#1, p 329). Unity or the notion of ‘communion’ ‘one with’ grants the perfect foundation for the primary focus of grasping the mission of Christ and the person He was-more important who He was obedient to in His representation. The Son is communion with the Father and thus operates in one harmonious accord with Him. 

Without the Incarnation, or the surrendering of the Word to the confines of Flesh, humanity would be separated from divine love due to the death of sin. 

Kereszty illuminates the breathtaking reality of the Word made Flesh through Annunciation and Birth of Christ which He ties excellently into Christological depths. The overall point that Kereszty seems to express in his masterful work is that the birth and infancy of Christ became the ultimate link between earth and heaven. It was through these particular events that man and God embraced one another and looked each other in the face in a redemptive reality.

 Through taking on the form of human flesh, the Father composed it, the Spirit crafted it, and Christ the Son assumed His human nature. Benedict illustrates that Christ, although born in Bethlehem, was born in the heart of mankind. Man now knows what the face of the Father looks like, what the works of the Holy Spirit resembles, and it is all because of the Son who took on the role as the Infant Child. Kereszty’s book left me with a profound insight, the fullness of the Divine jewels of goodness, purity, love, justice, and truth came to earth through the Incarnation and the innocence of the Christ Child, which reflects the majesty of God in such a way that we can hold the Savior of the World in our arms and gaze at His face.

-E.B.