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“The Bible,” we are told sometimes, “Gives us such a beautiful picture of what we should be.” Nonsense! It gives us no picture at all. It reveals to us a fact: it tells us what we really are; it says, “This is the form
in which God created you, to which He has restored you; this is the work which the Eternal Son, the God of Truth and Love, is continually carrying on within you.”
- Frederick Denison Maurice
(What kind of work has God been
carrying on within you lately? How are you called to cooperate?)
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WIS 2:1A, 12-22; PS 34:17-18, 19-20, 21 AND 23
JN 7:1-2, 10,
25-30
Jesus moved about within Galilee;
he did not wish to travel in Judea,
because the Jews were trying to kill him.
But the Jewish feast of Tabernacles was near.
But when his brothers had gone up to the feast,
he himself also went up, not openly but as it were in
secret.
Some of the inhabitants of Jerusalem said,
"Is he not the one they are trying to kill?
And look, he is speaking openly and they say nothing to him.
Could the authorities have realized that he is the Christ?
But we know where he is from.
When the Christ comes, no one will know where he is from."
So Jesus cried out in the temple area as he was teaching and said,
"You know me and
also know where I am from.
Yet I did not come on my own,
but the one who sent me, whom you do not know, is true.
I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me."
So they tried to arrest him,
but no one laid a hand upon him,
because his hour had not yet come.
USCCB Lectionary
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John 7.1-2, 10, 25-30 (On Christ’s origins)
The Jews had many preconceptions about from where the Messiah would come, what he would be like, and what he would do.
Many of these preconceptions prevented them from recognizing Jesus as the one for whom they had prayed.
• Have you, like Jesus, ever been misjudged and limited by others who drew hasty conclusions about you? Is this happening on a regular basis even now? How are you handling it?
• What do you do to prevent your first impressions about other people from limiting your relationship with them?
• Pray
for the grace to let God be God in your life. 3rd edition pocketbook
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God and I: Exploring the Connections between God, Self and Ego, by Philip St. Romain, 2016 (2nd ed.) ____________ Chapter 7: The Journey to Belonging: The Ego-God Relationship . . . We cannot know and enter into relationship with God unless: a.) God
really exists, and
b.) God is willing to enter into relationship with us as we are, in our Egoic consciousness.
Why “in our Egoic consciousness?”
Because that’s pretty much where we live most of our waking lives.
Does such a God exist? How could we know for sure? Are people who claim to be in relationship with God really experiencing God, or could it be that they are just projecting some kind of wish or desire
onto God? As children, we all probably had an “imaginary friend” at some time. God, it would seem, could serve as the ultimate in imaginary friends, even for adults.
The God Who Loves Egos
All throughout the world, hundreds of millions of people have claimed to encounter God. Atheists can dispute this all they wish, explaining it away in different ways. But if anyone, anywhere, has indeed encountered God, then atheism is wrong -- terribly, tragically wrong.
The Judeo-Christian tradition stands as a witness to this God who loves Egos. I am not denying, here, that God works in other religions, and also outside of all religions. But it does seem to me that the message of the Judeo-Christian tradition is that God does seek to enter into relationship with us just as we are, warts and all. In fact, what stands out most to me is that this is God’s desire much more than it is ours.
Hardback, paperback, eBook and free preview versions.
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