Incarnation

Here's a thought that crept up on me last night. I was reading something from Catherine of Siena, written centuries ago. I'm not quite sorted in my thoughts yet with all of this, but I'm going to try to express this little kernel that's been vexing me.

God becoming flesh. Why did He do it? Why choose this route? So we could relate better to Him? So that He could say He met the same temptations as us but prevailed? Because it was the plan from the beginning?

How about this for one of the facets of this infinitely complex gem. It was flesh that sinned against Him. So it was only in flesh that the reconciliation could come?

What do you think? Joe, if you're reading this, I'd like to know your thoughts.

Ignorance

Chad has a phrase that I have found myself repeating quite a bit recently. Not all of the communication from this autistic man/child is provocative or stimulating (Yes, Chad, there is a cat on Pinocchio), but every once in a while he comes up with things that make me marvel at the way his brain works.

He was watching Joseph and the Technicolor Dream Coat the other day. Potiphar's wife was actively pursuing our hero (who used to be "a little bit rock and roll"....Donny Osmond makes an interesting Joseph, I think). Finally, she asks why he won't do this with her, and he pushes away crying out, "I don't believe in free love!" Chad turned to me and said, "What's he talking about?"

There are times, I think, when Chad thinks he should be "getting" what's going on. Often times he does (he reads people and situations closely and well), but other times, their meanings just slip past him. Thus he comes up with, "What's he talking about?"

I'm reading Jude right now. I've never noticed before how many references there are in this little book to celestial beings. And Jude talks quite a bit about "slandering them," and apparently that is sinful. After a few days of reading the same few verses, I finally realized that I don't know what he's talking about. What does it mean, "to slander a celestial being?" Is this something I've done, and don't even know it? And the more I pondered it and discussed it with Ron, my tolerant sounding board, I had to ask out loud, "What's he talking about?" (Sometimes I have a very Chad-like inflection to my voice.)

The more I talked and the more days that went by, I found myself asking this question in a myriad of different circumstances. "What's he talking about?"

I seems that I am more ignorant than I gave myself credit for.