Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
A subtle challenge of the Christian life is that it is extremely easy for us to become desensitized to the incredible strangeness, wonder, beauty, and mystery of salvation history. I once had a spiritual director who commented that, “if you’re not completely taken aback with just how strange the Gospel is, you’re not really seeing it clearly.” This is not meant to be a critique of the faith but rather constitutes a statement of high praise.
Part of the beautiful strangeness comes from the recognition that God is so distinctly other than us in so many ways. He infinite, we are small and finite. God is invisible to our bodily senses. His being is so vast that trying to fully comprehend him is like trying to comprehend every drop of water in the ocean in the same instant. And yet He is a God who is infinitely enthralled with us. He delights in us. He is so in love with us that He yearns to be with us, to teach us, to laugh with us, to speak with us heart-to-heart, and to share our sorrows and concerns.
Thus, in spite of the apparently vast chasm between us, it is extremely important to recognize the significance of the fact that Christ took on our human nature to bridge the great divide and fully enter into our reality. The Incarnation is, in this way, the miracle of miracles as Jesus has made the invisible, infinite God knowable, visible, and accessible to our finite human nature.