Putting Together the Human and the Divine - Richard Rohr Friday, June 13, 2014 In the tenth chapter of John’s Gospel, John says that the people were intent on killing Jesus because he was not content with merely breaking the Sabbath, but he dared to speak of God as his own Father and made himself God’s equal. Yet Jesus does not back off. He declares (as all of us should), “The Father and I are one.” At that point the people fetch stones to kill him, saying “You’re only a man, but you claim to be God.” Jesus responds by quoting Psalm 82, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are gods’? So the Law uses the word ‘gods’ of those to whom the word of God is addressed—and Scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35). Whenever you try to take seriously what the Christ took seriously, the union of the human and the divine, you will almost always be called a heretic. You will almost always be dangerous to religion. The very thing that it’s all about is the most threatening thing of all, for some terrible reason. Our self-doubt and self-hatred resists such a total and gratuitous gift. As someone has so beautifully stated, “human beings cannot bear the burden of their own inherent greatness.” Perhaps that is because we think we can’t live up to it. Maybe we know subliminally or unconsciously that if we recognize our True Self, which is the divine indwelling, the Holy Spirit within, then we know we have to live with that kind of dignity, responsibility, and freedom. We are the tabernacles of God, and what happened in the Christ is what is happening in all of us. The putting together of the human and the divine within ourselves is clearly our task and our supreme vocation. “Remain in me” (John 15:4). Make your home in me, as I have made mine in you. Adapted from True Self/False Self, Disc 1 (CD)
Posted on: Fri, 13 Jun 2014 14:58:00 +0000
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