How can we enter into God’s unbound vision?
The peoples of the Old Testament were familiar with God the
Creator, whose first possession, the
Book of Proverbs tells us, was Wisdom herself, who was present at all of
Creation: When the Lord established the heavens, I was there… Wisdom, a
quality or extension of God, is poured forth by God, who creates all things –
including the human race – through
Wisdom in a state of rapturous delight. Hence Psalm 8 proclaims, O Lord my God, how wonderful your name in all the earth…, praise
that is concomitant with the stewardship of Creation offered to humankind: You
have given him rule over the works of your hands… Only faith can teach us
to enjoy the Wisdom that God offers; only faith can expand our vision, helping
us to see as God sees.
Yet humankind does not seem to be able to maintain such
vision: rather, we sin, separating
ourselves from God and from God’s Wisdom.
But Jesus Christ, God’s Wisdom incarnate, came to restore us to
relationship; in a radical shift from Old Testament theology, through his dying
and rising, Jesus effected forgiveness for all. Through Jesus, we have gained access by faith to this grace in which we stand,
Paul tells the Romans; our belief in Jesus restores our access to God, and thus
restores us to relationship.
And, as Jesus tells the disciples shortly before his death in John's Gospel,
the Spirit of truth will continue his
work, guiding them to all truth, sharpening their vision,
helping them to see and appreciate the truth that is Jesus himself, that truth
into which we are trying to enter more deeply through faith. The united figure of that truth – the Trinity
itself – is beyond our vision, to be sure, but our ability to trust, to have faith, to know that hope does not disappoint, enables the Spirit itself to give us peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ. Faith in the Trinity, in short, is our
access to salvation, and in time, to the unbound vision of God.
This post is based on Fr. Pat's Scripture class.
Image source: Wordle
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