Friday, October 27, 2006
♥ Friday, October 27, 2006
Who is GOD.Wah..feel super unworthy to do this article, considering where i am. Feels hypocritical. But, its not about what i feel..its about whats necessary.
Finished reading the synopsis of Paradise Lost by John Milton yesterday..how Satan tries successfully to draw Man and Woman outta the Garden of Eden. He used one word: obsession. It was Woman's obsession with herself, and Man's obsession to Woman that culminated into the acquiring of the knowledge of good and evil..that drove Man & Woman out. (of course, this isnt too biblical, but every new perspective is another perspective right.)
So then, we get a quick view into the history of Man. Man's betrayal as a result of Man's obsession by Woman's temptation and finally, the choice made to condemn everything sacred and beautiful with the ability to determine what's good and what's evil. Man has rejected God, and God has rightfully rejected Man. And with Man's loss of paradise, along came with him..Sin and Death.
Sin is nothing more than sheer obsession, and Death is perhaps the consequence of such obsession. What is sin obsessed with? The self! The desire to feel and to be powerful. Thats the idea behind sexual immorality, thats the idea behind any evil committed- men are no longer ends in themselves, they are means.
But God hasnt had enough of Man! He wants Man back..and to accept fully and completely. However, He cant do so, without Man already choosing a path that led to so much destruction and so much gap btw them. So God decided, if it was Man that sin entered, it must be Man that sin would leave. And not just any ordinary Man..it must be a Man of divine nature! A Man would just be as tainted as another. Now, who would this divine Man be..other than God's very own Son??
And who would better bear His Son, than that of a Woman that God would hold in high esteem? How do you undo disobedience? By Obedience!
The saying of the Fiat, with the encountering of 'and sorrow like a sharp sword will break your own heart', is obedience and the price that comes along with it. So in God's perspective of history, nothing lost will not be found.
And then comes Jesus. How would Jesus bear sin, and for good, destroy it? How would Jesus absorb sin and death, and remove it?
Thats the meaning of suffering that we must all ask. What does it mean when Christ suffered for all?? He couldnt have NOT suffered, because it is in precisely suffering that Jesus encounters the pain that humanity offers. It is in precisely the encountering of sin and temptation that Jesus witnesses firsthand the meaning of pain and suffering. Thats why he says, 'when the Son of Man is raised, He'll draw all to Himself.' Our comprehension is not complete without experience. It was such experience that Jesus understood completely both his humanity and divinity-'but let Your will, not mine, be done.'
And the late pope brings in a brilliantly new perspective. 'Ecce Homo' means 'Behold the Man'. When Pontious Pilate made such a remark, he unconsciously hails the true Man. The Man that is completely stripped of dignity, the Man that is tortured beyond recognition, but the Man that Man was all along..before the scourging and onslaught of sin. Pontious Pilate gave definitively the meaning of what it means to be human. The human christ, when raised, draw all Man to him. And when God said, He made Man in His image, its precisely in such humility that Man comes to experience and thus comprehend the divine, and to see the 'God in himself'.
And yes, we ask..who is God. Perhaps, it wouldnt be too absurd to ask instead, who we are.
Casting Crowns has this song that attempts to answer such a question.
And its in the chorus that we find out, "not because of who I am, but because of what You've done; not because of what I have done, but because of who You are!'
With that, the relationship between Man and Man is changed. Man no longer sees another as a means, but an ends. Because love is definitively within, and so when we love, we no longer love another for his or her possessions, but for who he or she is. So in encountering the true God, in the true Man, we experience our true selves, and love the true other, with none other than true love!
And the late pope brings in a brilliantly new perspective. 'Ecce Homo' means 'Behold the Man'. When Pontious Pilate made such a remark, he unconsciously hails the true Man. The Man that is completely stripped of dignity, the Man that is tortured beyond recognition, but the Man that Man was all along..before the scourging and onslaught of sin. Pontious Pilate gave definitively the meaning of what it means to be human. The human christ, when raised, draw all Man to him. And when God said, He made Man in His image, its precisely in such humility that Man comes to experience and thus comprehend the divine, and to see the 'God in himself'.