But now he has returned! And returned with a burning.
Today he gave the first talk in Church in 3 1/2 decades. I've pasted a version of it below. It's a beautiful talk.
Truly, the story of the prodigal son applies here. The leaving. The returning. The mixed emotions. The broken trust. The feelings of loss. The feelings of hope. The redemption.
The Life and Attributes of Christ, by Hugh Kennedy
March
20, 2016
Thank you sister Van Horn. Now I know how Charles Brill and
Mitzi McCall felt on Feb 4, 1964…Some of you that are a bit older may remember
them…They were the comedy team that followed the Beatles’ first appearance on
the Ed Sullivan show.
I pray that the spirit will continue to abide with me and
direct me as to what I am about to say.
In Mark chapter 8 verses 27 thru 29 we read:
And Jesus went out and his disciples into the towns of
Caesaria and Phillippi and by the way He asked His disciples, saying unto them.
“Whom do men say I
am?”
And they answered:
“John the Baptist, but some say Elias, and others say One of
the prophets of old”
And He sayest unto them,
“But whom do you say I am?”
And Peter answered and said:
“Thou art the Christ”
This, from our primordial existence has been the question
that we have all had to answer.
“But whom do you (Hugh) say I am?”
This man Jesus, of the lineage of David, born in Bethlehem,
raised a Nazarene, taught at his mother’s knee, was given by His Heavenly
Father and accepted the charge of bringing to pass the immortality and eternal
life of all mankind.
He had his free agency as we all do. He chose to accept all that was required of
Him to become the literal Savior of all that would follow him and keep the
commandments that have been given them.
From the very beginning, He knew what would be required of
Him. He explained it to the Apostles on the way to Caesaria and Phillippi. As stated later in Mark verse 31 He tells the Apostles:
…That “the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected
of the elders and of the chief priests and scribes and be killed and after 3
days rise again.”
In the preexistence Jesus determined that He was going to, in
every regard, do the will of the Father in all things. He was prepared before
the foundations of the world to come to earth as the Messiah and redeem a
fallen world as the one savior of all mankind.
We were created and reared as spirit children to our Heavenly
Parents in our preexistent first estate and chose to accept the Plan of
Salvation, which included Christ as our Savior (to the glory of the Father) and
by so doing punched our ticket to come into this mortal world (our 2nd
estate) to learn and be tested.
As it stated in Moses 3: verse 5:
“And every plant of the field before it was on the earth and
every herb of the field before it grew.
For I the Lord God created all things, of which I have spoken,
spiritually before they were naturally upon the face of the earth.”
And then in verse 7 He says:
“And I the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul,
the first flesh upon the earth the first man also. Nevertheless all things were before created, but spiritually
were they created and made according to My Word.”
What word could this scripture be referring to?
In John 1:1 it says:
”In the beginning was the word and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were
created by Him and without was not anything made that was made.”
So…here we have it…Heavenly Father is the Engineer and Jesus
Christ is the builder, not only of everything that was made, but of the plan
through which we are able to return to that celestial home from whence we came.
He was the perfect example of all we need to aspire to. It is not that there aren’t others that are
worthy of emulation, but, in order to fulfill all that is required of us, if we
are to return to our eternal home, we only need to do one simple thing.
As He stated many times from the shores of the Sea of
Galilee, to the people of the American continent, and to the present day:
“Follow Me!”
For the next few minutes I want us to ponder the most
important of Jesus’s attributes. This
attribute is foundational to all else that He was:
He so eloquently expressed it on that darkest and most
horrific of nights in the Garden of Gethsemane, knowing full well what he was asked
to do by His Heavenly Father. He had a full knowledge of what was about to
befall him, when he said:
“Oh, My father if this cup may not pass away from me except I
drink of it…Thy will be done.”
From the beginning in the preexistence to the present day,
His one driving force was to do the will of His Father in Heaven, our Father in
Heaven.
If we are to follow Christ as He suggests we do; how do we do
it? In my mind it seems that I must do as he did and do the will of Our Father
in Heaven.
I realized as I pondered this that so many times these ideas
are presented as commandments with rewards and punishments associated with
compliance and noncompliance. I have
decided to hire Christ as my life coach so I can one day be as much like him as
possible. Since I cannot have face to face meeting and lessons I must use what
is available to me.
Now…we know from scripture that anything in righteousness
that is important to us is important to Heavenly Father. Look it up…it’s in the
D & C.
Firstly I must show Heavenly Father that this is important to
me. I must study, pray, fast as needed, attend meetings where inspired speakers
can help me along the way. Most
importantly I must keep the commandments, repent constantly as needed, honor my
covenants, and magnify my priesthood and enduring to the end, do everything in
my power to accomplish this goal of being Christ like. Why would I do all of
this?
Because Heavenly Father is true to his word…As He says in Doctrine
and Covenants 82:10:
“I the Lord am bound if you do what I say; but when you do
not what I say you have no promise.”
He will work on our behalf
so we can accomplish our most important righteous objectives. Secondly, we have
the opportunity to have a member of the Godhead with us at all times. The Holy Ghost can be our constant source of
information as to the Will of God with respect to our daily activities. Through
all of these means I have the ability to choose my thoughts, words, and deeds
to be in accordance with God’s Will or not.
I have been paying very close attention this last year as to
when the Holy Ghost is most present.
Sometimes, it feels I am walking along with a close friend
like Dory. I am receiving promptings, I am responding to them, and there is
this amazing peace and joy. The path
seems so clear.
Other times it is like having a reluctant partner. He wants to help. I can feel His presence,
but there is some distance and so our communication is limited.
Then there are times when He is just gone. It is devastating. I have really screwed up and frantically
search my behavior to determine what has driven Him away.
In the process of pondering all of this I had a vision:
I was walking through a forest and came across a small
fawn. It was so beautiful, innocent and
intensely sensitive and alert to my every move.
Watching me, it was ready to bolt if I made one wrong move. However, if
I was careful and approached it lovingly it would permit me to caress it. In
other words it would abide my presence.
I like to think the Holy Ghost is like that small fawn. It is
a being of such purity and love that it wants nothing more than to comfort and
guide us. However it cannot abide the
least amount of evil. When I am mean spirited, when I get angry, judgmental or
negative in any way, or worse, I think that The Spirit must flee my presence.
The beauty of this for me is that in some ways it is like a
sentinel. When I know it is there, I
know I am on the correct path. When it isn’t, I know that I need a correction
of some kind.
When I am following Christ through that forest, no matter how
far ahead of me He may be. I have a
sweet, innocent, pure, companion, guide and comforter to assist me in my
journey. I am never alone. With the Holy
Ghost walking along with me I am inspired to be a better man, a better husband,
a better brother, father, friend and especially a truer servant of my Beloved
Heavenly Father.
As I obey those promptings and learn the will of God with
respect to my life I can “wax strong in the presence of God” and face to face with
Jesus one day when He asks “Whom do you Hugh say I am?” I can say to Him with complete confidence Thou art the Christ.
I testify that Jesus Christ is our older brother. By whatever
means I know not He came to this earth, (part man, part God) and took upon
himself by whatever means I know not, all the sins, trials, tribulations and
pain of all mankind and redeemed each and every one of us when we repent and
Follow Him.
As we strive to follow him and learn the Will of the Father
and practice those Christ like attributes the Holy Ghost will comfort and guide
us along the path back to our eternal home.
I testify that Jesus Christ did actually rise from the dead
and opened the doors for us to eternal life.
I know the Book of Mormon to be the word of God and that
Joseph Smith was the first prophet in these latter days. He restored the
fullness of the gospel to the earth. I
testify that Thomas S. Monson is a true prophet and leads Christ’s church and I
say these things in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
