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| Potato Run Creek, Indiana, on a dry, frozen January day. |
"Go home to your family and announce to them all that the Lord in his pity has done for you."
If someone has truly been changed by their encounter with Jesus, the family knows it better than anyone. Friends may notice a difference but can wonder how deep it runs. Acquaintances can be fooled; they see only one's public behavior.
But, knowing a history that includes parents and grandparents, uncles and aunts, and past generations, one's family can see that something has changed. They will also enjoy the grace this one has found more than anyone else.
Unfortunately, an atomized society of individuals with little or no connection to family, may find little support or confidence among their acquaintances as they learn new ways of thinking, feeling, assessing, and planning their life. Who would know that your life has changed? Who sees with their own eyes that the Lord has touched your life? Who remembers the past you are trying to escape?
When Jesus directed the formerly possessed man to return to this home, he knew the man would find a welcome. His people had tried to manage him as best they could with limited resources. Saint Mark tells us they tried to restrain him with chains and manacles but he tore himself free. But even in his madness he did not terrorize the village with his cursing screams and maniacal laughter; rather he stayed in the cemetery howling against the darkness and quiet tombs. When he returns a changed man, everyone is relieved and happy for him.
Salvation entails a return to family connections; it invites genealogical knowledge of oneself. The redeemed know where they come from; their champions, heroes, and saints as well as their odd, misguided, mad, and criminal relations.
And just as important: our ancestors are blessed through our turn to the Lord, just as the grace of Jesus's life, death, and resurrection included everyone listed in the genealogies of Saints Matthew and Luke. Perhaps that's what Saint Paul meant by his allusion to the Corinthian practice of baptizing the dead:
Otherwise, what will people accomplish by having themselves baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, then why are they having themselves baptized for them?
This odd suggestion follows the Apostle vision of the Lord's total victory over all creation, including the present, future, and past:
When everything is subjected to him, then the Son himself will [also] be subjected to the one who subjected everything to him, so that God may be all in all.
This much we know: the Lord's victory surpasses everything we can imagine or expect. Hearing of it, we learn a hope which is unbounded and infinite. It embraces far more than me, myself, and I.
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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.