Thursday, 11/8/12
A big difference between the Gospels and Paul’s letters is
that the Gospels always refer to Our Lord as Jesus, while in Paul’s letters he
is Christ, or sometimes Christ Jesus. We notice that Paul hardly ever refered
to Our Lord’s journeys, or his sermons, or his miracles. He related only to
Christ as he existed in heaven.
As Catholics our understanding is that Jesus Christ was not
only God, but also fully human: he is the Second Person of the Trinity who
became a human. Some of the present day believers we refer to as the “Jesus
People” don’t seem to make such distinctions. Their youngsters who attended our
parish school freely interchanged the words Jesus and God, speaking of Jesus
creating the world in seven days
I might be wrong in this, but it seems to me that the way we
picture the Lord is somewhere between how the “Jesus People” do, and the way Paul
did. We are in love with the human images of Jesus, relating to him as the
shepherd bringing the lost lamb home on his shoulder, as the guest in Martha’ home
with Mary gazing up to his face, as Jesus on the cross. We don’t relate
directly to him as he is now, and we are a long way from saying with Paul, “For
me to live is Christ, to die is gain.”
Perhaps we should make repeated efforts to copy Paul in speaking
directly with Christ in glory.
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