Corpus Christi
May 2008
God has always been with us.
God is the One in whom we live and move and have our being.
The Old Testament is the written account of God’s efforts to get us to understand this fact. He did this through the teaching of the Prophets.
As we read through the Old Testament we see that from time to time individual people or small groups of people realised, to some extent, what that meant and lived in accordance with that realization. But by and large we proved to be ‘stubborn and stiff-necked.’
So God decided to make himself visible to us and walk among us for a period of time.
This he did in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. That is why the Angel told Mary that her son would be called ‘Immanuel’; ‘God with us.’
As we read the New Testament we soon realize that Gods visible presence among us did not make that much difference from how things were in the Old Testament. It was still individuals or small groups of individuals who realized, to some extent, what ‘Immanuel’ meant and who lived in accordance with that realization. We continued ‘stubborn and stiff-necked.’
And then God’s final, even desperate, effort to get home to us the meaning of ‘Immanuel.’ Taking bread he said ‘this is my body’ and gave it to us to eat. Taking wine he said ‘this is my blood’ and gave it to us to drink.
What could be more graphic? Just as the bread and wine I eat and drink becomes inseparably part of me so is God with me. This is what ‘Immanuel’ means.
But am I still ‘stubborn and stiff-necked?’