My former formation director asked why
I haven't blogged in a while, and she suggested that my writing about
the humanity of Christ may be a good idea. I had shared with her
something my spiritual director taught me last week and she said it
had revolutionized her thinking and deepened her experience of the
Eucharist. So, she wanted me to let more people know.
I will be happy to share it, although it is not my idea, but my understanding of his lesson. Jesus
Christ is more human than we are. He is not less human, but more
human. Humanity doesn't equal sinfulness because humanity was never
intended to be sinful. As humans, we were created perfect and our fall
from grace actually made us less human, a warped distortion of what
it means to be human instead.
Jesus came to restore humanity to our
original perfection and goodness, as a “second Adam,” and to
offer humanity a second chance. Jesus is 100% human, which is
100% good, and He is also 100% God.
So, what does this mean to us? I
imagine it means something different to each one of us personally.
For me, it means the opposite of what I
was taught in my "new age" spiritual path before. I believed that we lost Eden
because of our desire for knowledge of good and evil, which had to do
with judgments. If we could stop judging, we could return to Eden, where we could reign as gods.
Well, good luck with that, since even
if we did not judge we would still live as a human who is less
perfect than were designed to be. We would just convince ourselves we
were perfect anyway, and lose the opportunity to know the real return
to our natural and perfect human state.
That solution does not re-unite us to
God our Creator. It only blinds our vision from the truth of our
alienation from that God. Judgment is not the enemy. Alienation from
our loving Creator is the enemy and judgment did not create that.
Pride did. We wanted the knowledge of good and evil so we could “be
as gods,” after all.
And this explains why I am creating the
app I am developing. I want to bring us closer to our loving Creator
through Christ, the new and perfect man. I want people to relate to
Him as a human man, as well as to God, because this is the reason He
was born and died for us.
In Father's homily this morning, he
talked about what Christianity has that secular “spirituality”
lacks. We have a real relationship with the Trinity, the Trinity that
original sin wrenched us away from. My new app has over 500 quotes by
Jesus Christ himself, from Sacred Scripture. It also includes over a
thousand quotes by four Carmelite saints and four blesseds.
What's the point of using quotes from
our saints and blesseds, and not just the words of Jesus Himself?
Their life was dedicated to helping bring people into a deeper
relationship with Christ. So, I want to do that for us, too. I want
their words to help us form friendships with these masterful guides,
so we can come to know our true Love and Master, Jesus Christ.
I want everyone to know the profound
and permanent intimacy, healing, love and joy this friendship offers.
So, in my usual peculiar style, I have been developing a
“communication gadget,” a “telephone” of sorts, to help us form a deeper connection with Him.
“If anyone comes to me, I want to
lead them to Him.” -St. Teresa Benedicta (Edith Stein)
