His vision is so different from ours

Tuesday, January 31, 2017

One final reflection on the beautiful passage I quoted to you last week from the Odes of Solomon.

His love for me brought low his greatness.

He made himself like me so that I might receive him.

He made himself like me so that I might be clothed in him.

I had no fear when I saw him,

for he is mercy to me.

He took my nature so that I might understand him,

my face so that I should not turn away from him.

He made himself like me. How can he make himself like me when I am so much not like him? This puzzles me because I try to make sense of it with my limited intelligence and with my limited ability to see things as He sees them.

I see in a dualistic way: I am different from Him.

He is good; I am not good.

He is sinless; I am sinful.

He is perfect; I am defective.

If I might dare make an assumption, Jesus sees in a unified way. And the unifying principle is His love, His compassion, His mercy, His forbearance, and His eternal will that I one day be united to Him and share totally in His glory. That is what He prayed for before He was betrayed and arrested and put to death:

Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. (John 17:24)

And so when the Christ chooses to become like me, all of this is part of that choice, and all of His unfathomable goodness and love is part of that decision.

And again: He does not see the way I see. He does not think the way I think. He does not judge the way I judge. And out of His love he risks becoming human even though it will turn out that human beings will seek to destroy His human nature.

But none of that matters. Still, He chooses to become like you and like me. And we will receive Him, we will be clothed with him, and we will have no fear in light of His limitless mercy.

And so finally, we can heed the encouragement given to us in the first reading from today’s Mass, from the Letter to the Hebrews, to persevere in running the race that lies before us while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the leader and perfecter of faith. (Heb 12:2)

Pray today for an increase of faith and for the ability to see beyond dualistic appearances.

God bless you!