The incredible shrinking God?

There can be key moments which touch us deeply and we find it hard to explain why. This week we woke to news on Tuesday morning of the fire which consumed the nave of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Having visited this Cathedral on a number of occasions this news held me transfixed in watching the flames consume the building. Several things sprung to mind but the lasting impression I had was of deep sadness for what was lost and how such a building represented our hope for a lasting relationship with God. Yet in the midst of deeply secular culture, it is hard to see how people are called to respond with faith and hope. The idea of God is at the heart of all human relationships seemed to be being consumed along with the flames. The desire to touch the divine presence seemed to be awakened in a way which is hard to explain.

The fact that this event happens in Holy Week seems particularly poignant as we seek to understand the mystery of Christ's death and resurrection. We stand transfixed by the same event which seems to be the destruction of human life to transform us into a mystery we don't fully understand. Too often we try to contain God in a way which is understandable, acceptable and explainable to others. Yet the difficulty is that we cannot explain the mystery of Christ crucified we can only bear witness to how it stands at the heart of our Christian faith. Trying to limit its power or explain it on our terms makes light of the intense longing that God has for each of us. As one of the responses in the Office of Reading says during the week, "When you were estranged from God, your minds alienated him by a life of sin, he used Christ's natural body to win you back through his death so that he might bring you into his presence holy, pure and blameless." 

It is when we hold ourselves at arm's length from God that something shocks into the true worth of our lives. This is the resurrection story where God touches us in our deepest fears and draws us closer. This is a befriending which is often outside our grasp but God brings it closer through transforming our relationships. God seeks us out and expands our life at the very moment that we want to shrink God to our own reality. This expansion draws us into a cosmic reality which transcends us in its intimacy and immediacy. It transforms us in grace to live not solely for our own wants and needs. It moves us to make choices which enable us to listen to that which calls us to be truly our selves by responding to God's loving call to be our best self.