“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
but a body you prepared for me;
in holocausts and sin offerings you took no delight.
Then I said, ‘As is written of me in the scroll,
behold, I come to do your will, O God.’”
During the Season of Lent we pause to consider Jesus’ human nature. He cannot save us unless he is fully human.
To be human means to be grounded in a certain time and place. The scriptures insist he was born “in the fullness of time.” That means Jesus could only be born of Mary, the Immaculate Conception, in Bethlehem during King Herod’s reign when Caesar Augustus was emperor.
Likewise, our salvation depends upon our willingness to accept the “body you have prepared for me.” Sin is the temptation to be something other than what we are, to be gods. We would be powerful like tyrants, brilliant like scholars, skilled like surgeons, beautiful like models, famous like pro athletes, and loved like entertainers – in short, like gods. Further, we would like to stand above and outside of time; and to have all knowledge of good and evil. We should know truths that are timeless and eternal.
We find ourselves living in the quotidian now. It is only one place and one time and each moment demands a choice which cannot be undone. I do not have the wisdom of the ages because I am an American male, age 65, white, educated, Roman Catholic, ordained, employed, and reasonably healthy. Each trait limits my awareness. I don't know what it is to be married, a parent or grandparent, a member of a minority race. I wasn't born in Rome, Russia or Peru.
Biology determines much of our destiny. I could not be a jockey or a basketball star. But neither do I suffer diabetes, heart disease or obesity. I am however, hard of hearing.
Every human being is a creature of time and space. It is absurd to wonder what you might have been had you been born a century earlier or later, or in some more exotic place.
The Gospel teaches us there is one man who has transcended time and space by his willingness to be the child of Mary and Joseph in first century Galilee. Obedient to the Spirit of God he announced the Good News, healed many, taught many and antagonized some. He acted in complete freedom and complete obedience to the God he called Abba.
Only by obedience to the same Spirit in our own time, place and bodies, can we aspire to such transcendence.
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I love to write. This blog helps me to meditate on the Word of God, and I hope to make some contribution to our contemplations of God's Mighty Works.
Ordinarily, I write these reflections two or three weeks in advance of their publication. I do not intend to comment on current events.
I understand many people prefer gender-neutral references to "God." I don't disagree with them but find that language impersonal, unappealing and tasteless. When I refer to "God" I think of the One whom Jesus called "Abba" and "Father", and I would not attempt to improve on Jesus' language.
You're welcome to add a thought or raise a question.