What is the source
of your vision?
Speaking before
the Sanhedrin in the Acts of the Apostles, Peter links the crucifixion of Jesus
to the history of the people of Israel, recounted in Psalm 118: The
stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. While Jesus
was alive, present before them, the Jewish leadership failed to see Jesus for
who he was, that is to say, the Messiah, the only name under heaven by which we are to be saved. Yet though they rejected Jesus, Peter
assures them, they are not condemned; they have the opportunity to
believe. Peter’s presence before them
constitutes an invitation, an invitation to recognize what God is doing right
now, before their very eyes, in their midst.
They have but to open to the vision that is God’s, to see Jesus for who
he was, and is, in their lives.
If Acts is based
on a past vision, John’s Gospel focuses on a present one. In the story of the Good Shepherd, Jesus
endeavors to open the eyes of the Jewish leadership, who fail to see that his
power as shepherd, the power to lay down his
life for his disciples at the
crucifixion, comes to him at the command of the Father. Jesus acts from the love of the Father; Jesus
is that love made manifest. Out of love for us, God provides the victim,
and that victim, the very love of God himself, once sacrificed, because it has
no limits, can prove how limitless it is. Jesus sees with God’s vision, and
wants to share that vision with all who encounter him.
The First Letter of John, while grounded in Jesus’ present vision, points also to the future: what we
shall be has not yet been revealed.
But here is the key: We do know that when it is revealed we shall
be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
Jesus changes how we see and understand ourselves. We are children
of God, we know. And God’s love in
us is generative, active, dynamic, creative, so we are constantly being
recreated into the Body of Christ, into the likeness of Jesus Christ. Our goal is to try to match that likeness
until, in eternal life, we know – and see
– him fully. Christ is the source,
and the perfect object, of our vision – we have but to open our eyes and
endeavor to see him as he is.
This post is based
on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordle.net
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