Witness the action of God

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us to be wary of our tendency to make God in our image. We are gifted with enormous curiosity and a drive to resolve mystery in how we understand our environment. This deeply human attribute is likely a cause for our amazing development as a species. We are reminded by Friar Jude Winker that the community to which the first letter of John was written was struggling with a heresy (Docetism) which prescribed a view of Jesus as pure spirit.  The challenge of the intimacy which is implied when God humbles to be born in human flesh does not allow us to push God away from our daily and physical existence. God chooses to be with us in physical reality. The author of the letter expresses this witness of God in Jesus as water, a spiritual sign and blood a sign of physical reality. Friar Jude reminds us of the Sacrament encounters with God in Baptism (as Spirit) and in Eucharist (as Flesh). Our indwelling Spirit resonates with the Spirit of God as witness to the experience of Jesus as spiritual and physical reality. In the Gospel from Luke, Jesus touches the unclean man. Friar Jude reminds us of the deep fear of leprosy in the ancient world. The body is important. It is the Temple in which we Present Jesus to the world. Jesus healing is intimate through the action of touching and laying on of hands. Biblical experience of Divine intervention in our lives does not require physical contact but the message to us when Jesus touches, feeds, rejoices and weeps with us is reconciliation and compassion. We have our mission to be His Body.