The flood of temporal things draws us after itself, but in this flood there is, as it were, a full-grown tree: our Lord Jesus Christ. He took flesh, died, and ascended to heaven. It is as if He agreed to be in the flood of the temporal. Is this stream dragging you headlong? Hold on to Christ. He became temporal for you, so that you might become eternal, for He became temporal in such a way that He remained eternal. What difference is there between two men in a prison when one of the is a convict and the other a visitor! Sometimes a man comes to visit his friend, and it seems that both are in prison, but there is a great difference between them. One of them is held there because of guilt, while the other has come out of love for mankind. Thus it is with our mortality: guilt holds us here, but Christ has come out of mercy. He came freely into bondage, and not as a convict.
St. Augustine of Hippo
The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on Me, he also will live because of Me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this Bread will live forever.” Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as He taught at Capernaum. … When many of His disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” But Jesus, knowing in Himself that His disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? … After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with Him. So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to Whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”
~ Jesus, King of The Universe, in John 6
Domine, non nisi Te (Latin: “Nothing but You, Lord”)
~ Thomas Aquinas
Oh beloved, it is true.
Yes, most of us come to believe on the The Lord Jesus, because we understand the need to be saved from our sins. We, especially us formerly lost boys of the Colony, were driven to the understanding that we were indeed separated from G_d. Out sins were many, and driven by our terrible propensity to try and save ourselves from our own pain.
But, like Jeremiah wept in Jeremiah 2, we lived rejecting the Great Husband of our souls. We made our own way. But, of course, all we did was to make a mess of things as our attempts at holding things together leaked out through all the brokenness.
Somehow though, in the Great Mercy of our King, Jesus called out to us in our darkness and emptiness. He first shared the Blessed Hope of our being delivered from the dark pit of our sin. He was, to say it more simply, The Light at the end of the terrible tunnel of our own making.
But, as we emerge into the Light from the dark, we begin to see that the freedom for which He has set us free, has MUCH more to it than simply escaping from a terrible destiny of separation and hell. We have been – and are continuously – called to something greater.
It takes some time to see it.
We, at first, are just ecstatic to be out of the darkness. Walking in the light puts us into a very good position to take advantage of the good and wholesome opportunities of life. Nothing wrong with this….
And then, as we reach forward to what lies ahead of us on the path, we get a taste for the work He has for us. We go about obeying Him and receiving blessings for doing this. It is the life we find in ever greater measure as we give it away. This too is very good…
Can we see it?
As we come through the exercising of our freedom and faith, we do truly enjoy it. But, we find that something is not quite full and complete. We even sometimes come to some crises where we are calling out to Him, and wondering what is missing. The rewards flow, but He is hiding something in His hand.
Suddenly though (many have described it as a window opening towards the sun, or a bolt of lightning, or a sudden tsunami of clarity), we get it.
We don’t want any-thing from this life. We don’t want a reward. We want a relationship. We want to know and be known by the One Who knew how to get us out the former pit of despair we were in. We come to understand; to know deep down within our inner man, that He is what we were looking for all along.
A rich few across the centuries have found this answer. Thomas Aquinas, who arguably is the most important writer and theologian among the early church fathers, wrote thousands upon thousands of deep and meaty pages on everything from Philosophy, to Logic, to Law, to Theology. His ‘Summa Theologica‘ is a go-to for nearly every formation of solid, Biblical Christian thought across the centuries.
Thomas was struggling through a deep passage on the meaning of communion when he sensed the pleasure of Jesus in his work. Jesus seemed to say to him, “Thomas, you have written well of Me, what would you have as your reward?” Suddenly, the Light burst on his situation.
Aquinas wanted a Person. G_d in the flesh. Jesus Himself. And nothing else.
Good answer Thomas. Good answer. And so, may tonight be our night too: May we discover the Truth. We want Him, and nothing else.
Just give me Jesus.
~ Anne Graham Lotz
