Out of reach…? Invite Him to have a seat beside you!

                As Christians, we believe Jesus is both human and divine at the same time, the Great Paradox. (Paradox Sept 2014 post)  If your thoughts are similar to mine, I place Jesus on the divine pedestal, the untouchable miracle worker, the savior, putting dimensions into which I cannot relate to His humanity.  I fail to put the human and the divine in Jesus together… and I fail to find it in myself.  Here in lies my problem; I distance Jesus beyond relational, inserted into a hierarchical model, He with the upper hand delivering to lowly me. We have a dysfunctional relationship.  We have more of an agreement to terms … terms I always fail to live up to and unfortunately His position elevates to be unapproachable.  If this configuration existed with my spouse or dear friends, our relationships would be unhealthy.  When I consider my friendships and those I love dearly in relationships, neither I nor those in relation have an upper hand.  We share without an element of power to create genuine, sincere bonds.  So … where does this leave my relationship with Jesus, the Great Paradox? 

          “… through him, with him, and in him” we proclaim the Great Amen desiring in sincerity to be part of His divinity.  I’ve heard too often that God had Jesus die as payment for our sins.  I suppose this wouldn’t bother me so much if I held onto the Old Testament concept of a dominant, often angry God, but I’ve never thought of our God as needing some violent payment in return for his love.  A Franciscan theologian John Duns Scotus argued, “Jesus did not come to change the mind of God about humanity (it did not need changing)! Jesus came to change the mind of humanity about God. … God does not love us because we are good; God loves us because God is good.”  God always loves richly, unconditionally, without limits or boundaries.  Hopefully we’ve shared or experienced this at some point in the presence of others.

         I think if one considers life, it is filled with loss and renewal.  Jesus himself was crucified between a good thief and a bad thief, between temptation and salvation, between feast and famine, followers and dissenters, hanging between heaven and earth, coexisting as human and divine.  He lived through life’s threats and losses to renew the face of the earth.  To be entirely divine would negate his humanity and to be totally human would negate his divinity.  Each coexists in Him just as they coexist in us.  The Holy Spirit breathes in each of us.  We, too, are forever human and divine.  This is why I find all life, all creation to be sacred.  I need to internalize since the beginning of time, the gift of creation has been a blending of the material with the life-giving divine.  The Kingdom of God is at hand!  I know this to be true when I see divinity merged with my humanity working in those exceptional moments in my daily life!  (Kingdom Jan. 2015 post)

        In our spiritual evolution, our Lord’s hope is that we will recognize the divine dwelling within each of us and in all of creation.   It is not a question of individual souls lost or gained.  We by our nature being children of God share in His humanity and divinity. 

    

         We, the community, as family, are the One Body in Christ.  My invitation … your invitation to Jesus … matters profoundly in the actions, the choices, the decisions to love!