GOD OFFERED...SO DO WE...

On Thursday, September 30, 2010, in the Ayodhya title dispute judgment, delivered by Allahabad High Court, it was observed that the spirit of divine ever remains present everywhere at all times for anyone to invoke at any shape or form in accordance with his/her own aspirations and it can be shapeless and formless also. Ages before that, around 960BCE, Solomon prayed, “But will God really dwell on earth with men? The heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!” (2 Chr. 6:18). It has always been a matter of mystery how to understand the nature of God, who is abstract but concrete. The One who is beyond time and space lives in history and culture. The One who is spirit and eternal, becomes flesh and dies upon the cross. The one who is not only omnipresent and omniscient, but also omnipotent becomes the most vulnerable. The question is how can the spirit of divine that ever remains present everywhere at all times, the shapeless and formless, the One who dwells in heavens, even in the highest heavens, embodies Himself into the limits of space and time.

Not a myth, not a legend, not a mere story, but a truth that He dwelled with us and for us, not as an angel, not as a nymph, not as a phantom, but as a human being, not out of ambition, not out of adventure, not out of monotony but out of love. Yes, the One who could have remained above the firmament, offered Himself to be emptied, to be tortured, to be crucified and to be buried, just because He loved us. Love, for Him was not merely an emotion, springing up and spilling over for a moment or for a brief period, but His own self, his life and power. His ‘becoming not’ was on account of His love towards us with the hope of our ‘becoming’. In other words, the key to His ‘becoming not’ – from divine to human – was His willingness to offer Himself out of His love for us. Thinking along the same lines, the key to our ‘becoming’ – from human to divine – too should be our willingness to offer ourselves out of our love towards Him.

As it was not just an expression but the very nature of God, integral to His being, to love and offer Himself for us, we too should offer ourselves, not just a part of what we have but the whole of what we are.