“Truly One of Us” by Colleen O’Sullivan
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| Saint John the Evangelist, Segna di Bonaventura, 1320s, [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons |
Beloved: What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we looked upon and touched with our hands concerns the Word of life – for the life was made visible; we have seen it and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was made visible to us – what we have seen and heard we proclaim now to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; for our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We are writing this so that our joy may be complete. (1 John 1:1-4))
When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there, and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place. Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed. (John 20:6-8)
Piety
Lord, help me to trust that you truly understand whatever I share with you in prayer.
Study
When I was young Saturday afternoons, especially rainy ones, were often spent watching westerns on TV. I also enjoyed “Wagon Train” during the week. As I learned about Jesus’ life, my mental images of him and his disciples were definitely influenced by my taste in television shows. When I heard about Jesus going into the desert, the terrain of the western U.S. came to mind. I pictured huge flat expanses dotted with saguaro cacti. I believed Jesus looked human and acted like a human being, but was, in fact, not really human at all. I imagined the meals he shared with his friends. They ate from metal dishes like the ones on “Wagon Train,” and Jesus always took a bite of whatever they were having, but then he would walk behind a saguaro cactus and spit it out because he didn’t have a stomach.
This all sounds silly to me as an adult, but John wrote his letter precisely because many of his contemporaries believed equally ridiculous things about Jesus. The Gnostics didn’t believe Jesus was human at all. Some of them thought, as I did as a child, that Jesus just seemed to have a human body. Others believed that the Christ came upon Jesus at his baptism, guided him throughout his public ministry, and then left Jesus at the Crucifixion. In their view, the Christ and the human Jesus were two separate beings.
In his Gospel, the evangelist John begins by stating that the Word that was God became flesh. The Son of God came to earth to live among us as one of us in every way except sin. In his first letter, John employs sensory language – heard, seen, touched – to again proclaim the truth about God’s Son. Jesus came to earth in poverty in a nowhere place in the Middle East. He was as helpless and dependent as any infant born in this world. He shivered from the cold and cried when he was hungry. He was as human as you or I. John says some people heard about this, but others actually saw and touched the Lord. The truth about Jesus, that he was both fully human and fully divine, is what John proclaims, both in his Gospel and in his letters.
It might seem strange two days after Christmas to have a Gospel reading about the Resurrection, but without Easter, Christmas would be just another sweet baby story. Without Christmas, there would be no Easter, so it makes sense to pair the two.
Action
Sometimes I wonder how human we really believe Jesus was. I have been caring for my 5-month old great nephew five days a week for a couple of months now. He loves music and I often sing to him. Sometimes he sings along (totally off-key humming, but nonetheless endearing). I have sung many a Christmas carol to him in the past few weeks, so that the songs we seldom hear in public become part of his repertoire. One day as I was singing “Away in a Manger,” I realized that the words aren’t really true to Jesus’ humanity. One of the verses goes: The cattle are lowing, The poor Baby wakes, But little Lord Jesus, No crying He makes. Those lyrics aren’t terribly believable. The slightest noise wakes my nephew. I cringe when that happens, because I know what comes next – wailing and efforts on my part to soothe him back to sleep.
Our lack of faith in Jesus’ humanity shows up in our praying sometimes, too. We leave things out when we’re talking with Jesus, often because we’re ashamed, but other times because we think he wouldn’t understand or our troubles aren’t worth sharing. That’s selling our Lord short. He was truly one of us. He may not have been a sinner, but he definitely understands wrongdoing, remorse, and repentance. He knows what it’s like to be sad or angry or afraid, or to feel like everyone’s out to get us. He knows what it’s like to have a heart full of joy just waiting to be shared. If we believe that Jesus was fully human here on earth, it will show in what we are willing to entrust to him in our prayers.
Spend a few minutes today reflecting on your recent prayers. Have you shared everything in your heart or is there something you’ve left out? Trust in Jesus’ compassion toward you and be sure to include it the next time you pray.
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