A Deeply Embedded Mystery
As humans we are beings in becoming, and what we will be is not yet revealed. Human essence is an eschatological reality that is fully realized in Jesus Christ, and is called forth in each one of us through him in whom humanity is fully realized. It is for this reason that human nature is notoriously difficult to define and profoundly amenable toward representation through a diversity of theoretical models. Being creatures whose essence is dynamic and inchoate we can be pressed into a variety of often competing models for rendering humanity intelligible. We are animals, the latest in a long line of evolutionary development; we are consumers, an economic being whose behavior collectively and individually can be predicted with an eye on market forces; we are social creatures constituted by institutional forces; we are angels fallen into flesh longing for transcendence and frustrated by physical limitations. What can’t be said about humankind? Certainly we are a mystery. But, we are a mystery deeply embedded in the mystery of Jesus Christ, who, as the first fruit of an eschatological harvest, has through resurrection power the authority to finally determine who we are and what we ought to be. In an essential way the final judgment is happening now in that we either find ourselves in his calling, or we utterly miss ourselves by turning a deaf ear to the call.
Wrote the following comment on November 23rd, 2011 at 2:09 am #
Me thinkest thou mad.
Wrote the following comment on November 23rd, 2011 at 3:25 am #
Surely we are all animals. We often give animal adjectives to humans, because we instinctively know that.
Not sure that the final call, though is an either/or proposition yet. we fail all of the time – “for ALL have sinned…” I could go on about a particular day recently, but shan’t. Still, sometimes we find our way back home.
Wrote the following comment on November 23rd, 2011 at 9:10 am #
Kevin – Then mad I shall be! 🙂
Roger – I think a big part of acknowledging the call is to confess that one is firmly a part of the ALL that have sinned. I must clarify or perhaps develop what I said if that didn’t seem possible in what I expressed above. As Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” The first act in letting Jesus define and determine one’s existence begins with this acknowledgment. From this point, life is one long process of repentance as we determine how he is speaking into the depths of our lives to restore the broken image. Certainly we will stumble along the way, perhaps even lay flat on our ass for long periods of time, but nonetheless responsiveness to Jesus is at the heart of being genuinely human.
Wrote the following comment on November 23rd, 2011 at 9:31 am #
Me alsothinks thine response to thy friend superior to thine post. Thou ought write more plainly, and stop chasing thine theological tail.