Grief

I consider the terrible grief of an Eternal Father who grieves not only for all that I am, but for all that I could be…  My poor poor God…

Lepers Cleansed (Unknown)

I have been reflecting on Christ – on His Humanity…  It is one thing to think about God in His Divinity, but there is something so moving about Christ in His Humanity.

There are countless stories in the Gospels that demonstrate the Humanity of Christ.  There are so many times He is chatting with friends.  There are times when He meets sick people and is moved by compassion for them.  There are instances where He is distressed at the suffering of another.  And though He can experience all of these things in His Divinity, there is something so human in His reactions at times…  And this is not to say that His human reactions are flawed or imperfect or wrong.  This is to say that Christ’s Human reactions are PERFECTLY human in the way that my reactions should be perfectly human…

There is a story in the Gospel about the man who was ill for almost four decades…

“One man was there, who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him and knew that he had been lying there a long time, he said to him, ‘Do you want to be healed?’ The sick man answered him, ‘Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is troubled, and while I am going another steps down before me.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Rise, take up your pallet, and walk.’ And at once the man was healed, and he took up his pallet and walked.” (John 5:1-16).

And I have been thinking about that story.  For Christ was so human in His Divine dealings with that man.  He stopped and spoke to Him.  Divinity has no need to converse – after all, the God who made me knows me even without me saying anything at all.  But Christ stopped and used the limited time that He had on this Earth, to speak to the man and to understand what the man wanted…

There are simply so many times when my busyness, and where my frantic running around keep me from my true work – in mimicking the Humanity of God.  There are so many times when I compare myself to God’s perfect Divinity and give up completely at my complete and utter falling-short of this.  And yet, in all of that hopelessness, there is a significant falling short of the real goal.  Forget about trying to mimic the Divine nature of God – how about if I just try to level up to His Human Nature?  I mean, that is the point after all…  God became Human to show me how to be a perfect Human – with all the weaknesses and limitations of my being.  And here I sit and waste that good example.  Here I sit and make excuses and hurry past.

And all He is really asking from me is that I help others and love them – as He did – as He still does…

For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.