The “Otherness”of God: A Reflection for the Twelfth Sunday In Ordinary Time

In our prayer and in our preaching, we usually concentrate on the Good News that we are made in the image and likeness of God. This revelation gives us great hope and comfort as we face the ups and downs of our daily life. It is an aspect of our Faith that St. Francis stressed in his preaching and in his life. St. Francis was in awe of our God who surrenders His divinity to fully embrace our humanity and thus offers us a pattern for living and praising our Heavenly Father. Jesus freely emptied Himself of His divinity to become fully human and we are made in His image and likeness. In His embrace of our humanity Jesus fulfills all of our needs and desires.

Also, we as members of the Body of Christ, stand in awe and wonder of the “otherness” of God. As much as Jesus is like us, we are aware that God cannot be contained by the limitations of our humanity. One has only to read the prayers that St. Francis composed to realize that he too stood in awe of the mystery of God’s power – God’s otherness.

Today’s readings from Job and the Gospel of Mark make it clear that our God is both Creator and Savior. In the first reading, God reminds Job that no one helped Him create the universe. Mark makes it clear that Jesus is the Lord of creation and the Savior of humanity who saves us from the storms of sin, death, doubt and fear. Jesus restores nature’s balance, the balance that was lost by Adam’s sin. Jesus’ otherness – His divinity – will only become perfectly clear to His disciples (and to us) in the encounter with the resurrected Christ.

Our belief in the mystery of Jesus Christ’s humanity and divinity is what we profess every time we recite the Creed. Christ Jesus is both “God from God, Light from Light” and “He came down from heaven and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary and became man.” As our lives continue to unfold and as we grow in our faith in God, we stand in awe and wonder that we are a “new creation” in Christ who calls to live “no longer for (ourselves) but for Him who for (our) sake died and was raised.” More and more we come to realize that the “old order has passed away and all things” – including us – “have become new” in the fullness of Jesus Christ. (2 Cor: 5:16-17)