Reflections on the Humanity of Christ
By Maire D., MJ

The infinite God Who is steady, permanent, infinite Goodness – that infinite God has become a man.

That is something we will never ponder enough. But since we will ponder it for the rest of eternity, we should ponder it now, too. It is a physical and metaphysical reality, but it is also a reality that we must ponder with our imagination and in this way save ourselves from feeling lost in all the pettiness of daily life.

Sometimes i like to think about our Lord’s hands. As the Divine Liturgy says, “His holy, immaculate and blameless hands” (from the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom); the hands of Jesus that bless us, the hands that bless the children; the little tiny hands of Jesus, when he was a baby, born to the Blessed Mother, so little, so well formed. The same hands that were trespassed by the nails, crucified; they were brought down, lifeless and trespassed, into the lap of the Blessed Mother. And then those hands were resurrected and transfigured, having the wounds in which St. Thomas the Apostle put his finger. Thinking of the hands of our Lord is very powerful because the sacrament of sacraments, the Most Blessed Sacrament, is the Body of Christ. The rest of the sacraments come out of it. The precious Body of Christ that contains the Divinity is the miracle of centuries, the mystery discovered to man in the fullness of time.

It’s good to think, how do the eyes of Christ look? What was the color of his eyes? Well, if you want to know about the eyes of Christ, go through the Scriptures. They don't tell us the color, but they do tell us about the eyes of Christ: when he looked upset and called the Pharisees those terrible names like “hypocrites”. When they were powerful and commanding like when there was the storm on the lake while He was in the boat and He turned to the elements and said, “Calm, be quiet!”. When the eyes of Jesus were looking at children, He said “Let the children come to Me. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Oh to see those beautiful, paternal eyes of our Lord. Or when he was born a little tiny baby, just barely opening his eyes; they say babies only see colors, they don’t see figures; if this is so then when Jesus was born He didn’t see His Mother. As God in HIS Divine Person and in His infused knowledge He saw His Mother, but as a little tiny baby in His humanity He only saw colors.

Sometimes we think it is so difficult for us to forgive someone, and that is when we can think about the eyes of our Lord in the crucifixion, when He looked around from the cross and forgave the soldiers and the Pharisees and everybody, saying, “Father, forgive them; they know not what they do.” There’s a special look of depth in those eyes.

And on so many other occasions, such as when our Lord resurrected; St. Ignatius of Loyola says that the first person our Lord appeared to after the resurrection was His Mother. Of course it would make since that He would do so, after all she participated in his cross and suffering more than anyone else it is only just that she would participate in His resurrection as well. This took place even before He allowed Himself to he seen by Mary Magdalene in that beautiful scene in the garden. Mary Magdalene is looking for His body and she sees Him as a gardener. She says, “Sir, where did you put Him?” She doesn’t ask “Where did you put Jesus?” She says, “Where did you put HIM?” because she is so madly in love with Him that there is no other ‘him’, the only ‘Him’ is Jesus. That is a woman mad with love though she had been a notorious prostitute. It is the power of love that makes out of a prostitute a great saint. What a transformation of God’s grace to make out of a prostitute with seven devils, a saint.

Let’s meditate more on that. We tend to have terrible temptations of feeling sorry for ourselves thinking, “I’m a terrible sinner.” Well, that is true. In the Divine Liturgy we say, “Lord, have mercy,” again and again. It’s good to concentrate on the humanity of Christ. That helps us to fall in love with Him in a deeper way. The only way for salvation is in and through the humanity of Jesus.

The Gospel says that Mary “pondered all these things in her heart.” St. Luke got many of the childhood stories of Jesus from her. Isn’t the great devotion that the Divine Liturgy has to Mary beautiful? So many songs in it are in honor of Mary, praising Mary. Let’s ask her to pass to us that knowledge so that we will fall in love with her Son, Jesus, the only way for salvation.

“Lord Jesus Christ Son of God and Son of Mary give wisdom and understanding to all who ask. Make the pure light of Your Divine knowledge shine in our hearts, O loving Master that we may understand the message of Your Gospel.” (Divine Liturgy)

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