Election in Christ

The call of Christ is to be like Him as he is like his Father. How do we respond to Christ's call? Adriaan Peperzak has some valuable insights.

"Unity with God is reached as a likeness with the Son, that is, through uniformity with the perfect image of the Good. This correspondence can be indicated by the words cited above from Jer. 22:16 ["He did justice to the poor and unhappy, and that benefited him. This is surely what is called to know me, says the Eternal."] Since the goodness toward one's neighbor includes giving one's own life and thus also one's own death for the Other, it can be clarified through Christian metaphors in which the cross has become the central image. The God of whom it is said that he is semper major, greater than every reality that can be thought, reveals himself as semper minor: as a man humiliated unto death because he did not refuse service, but rather became completely one with it.

"In our history, we have been confronted with the terrible fact that Christians, whose election implies the suffering and death of Christ -- a suffering and death which they likewise had to fulfill -- again and again imposed suffering and death on Jews. How is it possible that we have not recognized the Passion in the persecution of God's people, and why is it so difficult for Jews to recognize the same Passion in Jesus?

"The encounter with Christ is an encounter with the poor, the leprous, the foreign, the oppressed, the persecuted, the humiliated, and the marginal. The presence of Christ is, as the presence of God, essentially hidden. The encounter with a neighbor is at the same time a memory of the Lord's passing by and an anticipation of his coming. Christ does not reveal himself through appearances, but in the figure of the needy. The poor come "in the name of the Lord." Christ therefore comes as the always present exception that disturbs the order of powers and authorities. Recognition of this presence shows understanding of the Spirit and obedience to God's Word." "The Significance of Levinas for Christian Thought," in The Quest For Meaning.

See also the Pope's address this fall in Germany.

Listen to "Holy Is His Name"

Listen to "Here I Am"

Listen to "Servant Song"

Video "Servant Song" based on Lord of the Rings