God as Excuse
I recently watched the story of Father Damien in the film Molokai. His demonstration of Christ- like love was astounding.What struck me was that one of the greatest mistakes Christendom has made over the years has been to overemphasize the deity of Christ. In this way, we have for centuries excused ourselves of following his example into the more heinous acts of mercy simply because we are men and he was God. Maybe his deity is theologically crucial but his humanity is practically more so.
(You can see in this picture the leprosy that disfigured and finally killed Father Damien after years of "imprudent" contact with the people of Molokai.)
posted by Lian at 9:10 am
4 Comments:
one of the chief reasons christ came in human flesh was to be tempted in all ways like us, yet without sin. that would include tempted to run away from the undesirables of our world. a common human condition called pride. to turn away from those who are not "us". accused of being a wine bibber, and hangin out with prostitutes, he is our example. and we fall short. mcm
8:51 am
I think it's interesting too in this movie how he was constantly told that he was selfish and had a pride issue. Funny that. He was the only one who would touch the people and ultimately getting their very misunderstood disease. I can't imagine what those people must have felt when he touched them. Shaking unfeeling hands and bandaging unfelt wounds. Yet they must have felt his touch searing through their whole bodies as he allowed Jesus to touch them through him. I know I fail on a daily basis to touch all the lepers that jesus brings me.
9:25 am
this film is going on my netflix qeue... i hope they have it.
4:44 am
Perhaps that is true of individuals, though i cannot see why.
The greatest amount of community service in this country is provided by christians or christian groups.
That is not to say there are not good works done by others.
8:34 pm
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