Readings:
Jeremiah 20:10-13; Psalm 18; John 10:31-42

All those who used to be my friends watched for my downfall, ‘Perhaps he will be seduced into error. Then we will master him and take our revenge!’ But Yahweh is at my side, a mighty hero…
Jeremiah 20:10, 11

The Jews said, ‘We are not stoning you for doing a good work, but for blasphemy: you are only a man and you claim to be God.’ Jesus answered, ‘Is it not written in your Law: I said you are gods? So the Law uses the word gods of those to whom the word of God was addressed… yet you say to someone the Father has consecrated and sent into the world, “You are blaspheming,” because he says, “I am the Son of God.” ‘
John 10:33-36

In praying the Gospels imaginatively, many people find that while they can imagine the scene as though it were now happening, they can only be present as observers, not as participants. This reflects a truth of our lives, that while we may admire, be attracted by and want to follow Christ and his teaching, we do so from a distance. He is ahead of us, not, as for Jeremiah, at our side. We can also feel that it is all very well for Christ to preach and live what he preaches, to die so heroically and generously for us, but he is God after all, and has an unfair advantage!

There is a fascinating book called The Trial of the Man who claimed to be God by Douglas Harding. The book describes an imaginary trial taking place in Britain after the blasphemy law has been changed as a result of the Salman Rushdie affair. The defendant is a Christian. The prosecution bring forward a large number and variety of witnesses. The defendant conducts his own defence but provides no living witnesses, only dead ones, wise and holy men and women from the past, both Christian and non-Christian. The book is a scholarly and entertaining study of a question we all have to ask ourselves, ‘Who am I?’

I have already mentioned the friend who told me of a group meeting at which all were asked to introduce themselves. Each gave his name and occupation. When it came to my friend’s turn, he wanted to say, ‘My name is Donald. I am a unique manifestation of God.’

Why is it that we feel we have to give our occupation when introducing ourselves? It gives us a sense of security, assures us of a place on society’s rung and so of our worth, a custom which adds to the embarrassment of those who have no occupation.

Donald is a very wise man, who stands in awe of no one and is not impressed by title or station. Measuring our own and other people’s worth by their occupation or title is subtly destructive of ourselves and of them, for it prevents us from appreciating who we really are and who they really are. If we identify our worth by our possessions, achievements or place in society, we tend to look down on those who have not reached our level, and if we lose any of these things, we feel we count for nothing.

I gave a retreat once to a L’Arche assistant who, after eight years was trying to decide whether to make a permanent commitment to L’Arche, to work with the mentally handicapped for the rest of her life. I asked her what she had gained from her last eight years. She said that she had joined L’Arche feeling she had something to contribute, a good university degree and teacher qualifications. The handicapped were not at all impressed by these qualifications and she felt devastated. The most valuable thing she had learned in L’Arche was that she had a worth which was her own being, not her achievements, qualifications or place in society. This is what is meant by ‘Blessed are the poor, theirs is the kingdom of heaven.’

In prayer, hear God say to you, ‘I have called you by your name, you are mine. You are precious in my eyes and I honour you’ (Isaiah 43:1, 4). And hear Jesus say to you, ‘I am the vine, you are the branches,’ ‘You and I are one undivided person’. If we could really know this truth in the depths of our being, then we should have the most wonderful inner freedom. Catherine of Genoa, a sixteenth-century mystic, once said, ‘My God is me, nor do I recognize any other me, but God himself.’ When worried, anxious, agitated, or pleased and delighted, it is good to ask ourselves, who is worried, anxious and so on: is it God, or is it me?

Prayer
Open our eyes, Lord, to the wonder of our being. We were in your mind before the world was created, formed to be one with Christ and to live in love in your presence. We ask you this through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Amen