I was struck by Christ's words to Peter in this past Sunday's Gospel reading at Mass. After I found myself focused on the words "...for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my Father Who is in Heaven."
Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you...
My thoughts wandered to a question, "What has flesh and blood revealed to you?" What I mean is "What have you learned about God and His ways from other human beings?" More to the point, "How has your image (concept) of God been damaged by the images of God (other people made in His 'image and likeness.'")
While not exactly where Jesus was going with Peter at the time Christ's words are nonetheless Divine and so transcend time - they speak to all times and to where I was at at the time.
God's Word (Jesus) says something about God. In fact, it (He - Jesus) says everything about God. Jesus reveals God totally. He's the perfect image of God His Father because He is the full expression of God's Mind. The Father has a perfect, eternal thought and it is of Himself. This utter perfection (perfectly uttered through and in His love, the Holy Spirit) is perfectly like the Father but is distinct from the Father. The Word of the Father is the full and perfect expression of the Father yet is not the Father.
Jesus, the Word become flesh, is Himself a perfect and constant "vocalization" of Who the Father is. (If you need to hear what the Father is like - and you do - listen to Jesus and listen to His Sacred Heart because it beats to the same rythym as the Father's Heart.) Jesus is the living, mirror image of the Father. To see Jesus is to see the Father reflecting on you. (For the Father always thinks of you and always shines His face upon you. He reflects on you in both of these senses. That is His delight and you, therefore, are His delight.)
But flesh and blood - our earthly fathers, our mothers, our friends - though made in God's image - are fallen and broken mirrors. The "Adams" and "Eves" in our lives (those who are supposed to show us God's love and true nature reflecting and shining through them) have not fully and faithfully imaged God to us. How could they have? A cracked mirror will, of course, give a distorted image of anything it reflects.
This is one reason why the Father's Word (His perfect, eternal self-expression) became manifest as "flesh and blood." The Word became flesh and blood so that we could see what the Father is really like. Children need to see.
"And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth." - John 1:14
"That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete." - 1 John 1:1-4
That Word, the very LIFE of the Father, became tangible, visible, sensible. God wanted us to know Him so intimately that we could taste Him. Indeed, that was Christ's plan all along. To give us His flesh and blood that we might "taste and see" Who God really is: Good.
The "flesh and blood" people we've encountered have taught us in various ways that God cannot be trusted totally; that He is not good. We have been hurt by His "images" and so why would we not be hurt by the One being imaged? Our concept of God has been broken by broken images.
But Jesus gives Himself to us - His very flesh and blood - in the Eucharist to SHOW us that God IS good. The Father is good. The flesh and blood of the Word of the Father (The Word of the Father became flesh - think about that) proves this. God swears He is trustworthy and good. He gives His Word.
So what has flesh and blood revealed to you? Whatever faulty and incorrect concept you have of God may you allow Jesus to show you the Truth - Himself. May God reveal to you - as He revealed to Peter - Who Jesus really is and, when you experience (encounter and live with) Who Jesus really is you will know and experience Who your Father really is: Good.
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