{"id":306,"date":"2015-01-21T10:38:48","date_gmt":"2015-01-21T15:38:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/albertlittle\/?p=306"},"modified":"2015-08-03T15:59:38","modified_gmt":"2015-08-03T19:59:38","slug":"saw-dual-natures-christ","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/albertlittle\/saw-dual-natures-christ\/","title":{"rendered":"Jesus, Divine and Human: A Juxtaposition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Bibles
Bibles and Hymnals. Photo by William<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

I have a story to tell. Unlike most stories we tell I don\u2019t think this one has a moral takeaway or objective life lesson to teach. Actually, I\u2019m sure it does, but I haven\u2019t found it yet\u2014and that\u2019s the awesome part about\u00a0journeying<\/em>, some things we experience don\u2019t click right away. Sometimes, actually, mostly all the time, the longview is absolutely stunning. Even if you can\u2019t see the forest for the trees when you\u2019re in the thick of it.<\/p>\n

This is one of\u00a0those<\/em> times, where I know something amazing happened here but I don\u2019t know, quite yet, what to make of it. I told this story to a very good, long-suffering friend of mine and it seemed profound although neither of us could really tell why. It\u00a0is<\/em> profound though. So I\u2019ll tell you what happened, I\u2019ll leave it here on the table, and I\u2019ll ask you to make of it what you will.<\/p>\n

The story is about the day I experienced the dual natures of Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n

I love to tell stories more than once. I\u2019m sure, if you ask anyone that knows me even half-way decently, they\u2019ll be able to affirm this fact for you quite readily. Sometimes I get jazzed up on particular tale and it\u2019s all I tell for days, weeks, or months. You\u2019d be right to guess it drives my wife up the wall but I\u2019m fortunate to have so many patient and loving people surrounding me. But I do, I do tell stories over and over again.<\/p>\n

One story I love to repeat is that of St. Nicholas, the\u00a0real<\/em> Santa Claus who once, at a council, slapped a fellow bishop square across the face for denying the dual natures of Christ: human and divine. I say it every time I tell the story but, friends,\u00a0that<\/em> is a Santa Claus I can get behind.<\/p>\n

For the past few months, as I\u2019ve progressed in my RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults) classes and as I\u2019ve come closer to becoming a bona fide<\/em> Catholic it\u2019s been encouraged that I start\u00a0acting<\/em> like a Catholic. As a result, I\u2019ve filled our house with religious paraphernalia, hung a rosary\u00a0from my car\u2019s rearview mirror, and changed nothing else about my life. Just kidding!<\/p>\n

In actuality, I\u2019ve begun, as it was encouraged, to live like a devout Catholic. That means, among other things, I\u2019ve begun to attend weekly Sunday Masses. On most Sundays this means going, with my wife, to our regular non-denominational Protestant worship service as well as attending Mass, either before or afterwards. Thankfully, there are lots of Catholic churches within driving distance and there are a variety of accommodating Mass times in our area.<\/p>\n

My story is about one particular experience and it happened while we were travelling and away from home over Christmas. We were staying, actually, at my wife\u2019s parent\u2019s house and, on a Sunday morning, I found myself at Mass in a different town. This isn\u2019t the point but the Mass itself was pretty incredible. The priest and parishioners were earnest and devout, the music was rich and beautiful, and the service was very reverent (and relevant). I\u2019ve written before about picking a church out of the phone book<\/a>. The beauty in the unity of the Roman Catholic Church is that I knew exactly what to expect; I knew it would be licit and doctrinally sound. It\u2019s always a nice bonus to experience the Mass in a different context too.<\/p>\n

For my purposes here though I want to talk about one particular part of the Mass, the processional. See the Mass begins with the parishioners in the pews and an empty altar at the front of the church. The priest, or priests, along with the altar servers (and sometimes other helpers) enter down the middle aisle during the entrance\u00a0antiphon, a hymn sung by the whole church. The priest\u2014and this is beautiful\u2014is acting\u00a0in the person of Christ<\/em> throughout the Mass. The reason we stand and sing, the reason why the entrance\u00a0antiphon is a big deal, is because\u00a0Christ<\/em> is entering the church (and the Mass). What I want to talk about is something else though, something equally amazing, and that\u2019s what comes before\u00a0the priest: the\u00a0written<\/em> Word of God.<\/p>\n

The written Word of God, in the Lectionary, is\u00a0paraded<\/em> down the aisle held reverently up, over the head of the person carrying it, so that everyone can see. This, as I\u2019ve heard it put, is to indicate that these are the\u00a0very words<\/em> of the Lord, recorded infallibly. These words are revered and honoured and held in high esteem.\u00a0Indeed\u00a0throughout<\/em> the Mass particular reverence and symbolism surrounds the Bible readings; an even deeper reverence and symbolism surrounds reading from the Gospels.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s always beautiful to experience.<\/p>\n

Mass ended, on this particular day, and I found myself an hour later with my wife and her family at their home church, an enthusiastic Baptist church with a rich history in the community.<\/p>\n

The pastor who was speaking that morning began, if I recall, with a prayer and then pulled out a smartphone from his pocket and began reading from the Bible.<\/p>\n

I was floored, immediately, but the incredible juxtaposition.<\/p>\n

Earlier in the morning, at Mass, I\u2019d witnesses Jesus the Word of God in His divine form. The Lectionary, containing the very written words of God, was paraded with reverence down the aisle toward the altar. Before the priest read from the text we crossed our foreheads, our lips, and our hearts. After the priest finished he\u00a0kissed<\/em> the book itself. The Word of God, in its written form, is highly revered in the Catholic Mass. It is celebrated, as a wise friend pointed out, in its\u00a0divine<\/em> form in the Mass.<\/p>\n

Later that morning, at the Protestant worship service, I\u2019d witnessed Jesus the Word of God in His\u00a0human<\/em> form. As the pastor pulled out his smartphone, opened his Bible app, and read, through reading glasses, the words on the screen this was the accessible Jesus, the everyman Jesus, the\u00a0human<\/em> Jesus.<\/p>\n

Like I said, it was a pretty incredible exercise in compare and contrast.<\/p>\n

At Mass, Jesus, in the Word of God, is treated as divine and kingly. He is respected and revered and honoured. At the worship service, Jesus, in the Word, is accessible and immediate and common.<\/p>\n

He is, I believe, no more diminished our uplifted in either context. He is just\u00a0different<\/em>. At the Catholic service, His divine nature is emphasized. In the Protestant service, His human nature is emphasized. Both, I think, are equally important perspectives to have.<\/p>\n

As I said in the beginning, this is one of those remarkable moments, one of those profound instances along the way, that I don\u2019t quite know what to make of just yet. Maybe I will later, maybe I won\u2019t. But, regardless, it struck me, and the aforementioned wise friend, as something fairly remarkable, if not at least a little bit interesting.<\/p>\n

I have some conclusions, surely, some takeaways from the whole experience, but nothing concrete. Do we revere God enough in a Protestant worship service? Is Jesus common place enough to be accessible and\u00a0human<\/em> in the Catholic Mass? Can we learn something from\u00a0both<\/em> contexts? I think so. And I think, what\u2019s certainly true for\u00a0me<\/em>, is that God is showing me, every day, in incredible and new way, the richness of the world He created and the beauty of this journey I\u2019m on.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have a story to tell. Unlike most stories we tell I don\u2019t think this one has a moral takeaway or objective life lesson to teach. Actually, I\u2019m sure it does, but I haven\u2019t found it yet\u2014and that\u2019s the awesome part about\u00a0journeying, some things we experience don\u2019t click right away. Sometimes, actually, mostly all the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2332,"featured_media":310,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[41,45,56],"class_list":["post-306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christian-living","tag-jesus-christ","tag-mass","tag-protestant"],"yoast_head":"\nJesus, Divine and Human: A Juxtaposition<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"An experience of an incredible juxtaposition between Mass and a Protestant worship service and the Word of God.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/albertlittle\/saw-dual-natures-christ\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Jesus, Divine and Human: A Juxtaposition\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"An experience of an incredible juxtaposition between Mass and a Protestant worship service and the Word of God.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/albertlittle\/saw-dual-natures-christ\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Cordial Catholic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-01-21T15:38:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-08-03T19:59:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/573\/2015\/01\/5688218708_48f50f916c_z.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"K. 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