Comfort For The Contrite
By Brad Jersak
Christ emptied himself, embracing all that we are-trials and temptations, poverty, suffering and death-to identify with us by becoming one of us. In giving himself to a humankind, he invites us, in turn, to identify with him by 1) leaving our guilt, shame and egos to die at the Cross, and 2) saying Yes to his call to a life empowered by God’s love and mercy.
Such far-reaching, sacrificial love suggests that the Lord wants us to treat everyone, especially the lowly, with the care and respect that we would have for Christ himself. God esteems them – indeed, he lives with them – in a special way. As God said through the prophet Isaiah,
And it will be said:
“Build up, build up, prepare the road!
Remove the obstacles out of the way of my people.”
For this is what the high and exalted One says—
he who lives forever, whose name is holy:
“I live in a high and holy place,
but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit,
to revive the spirit of the lowly
and to revive the heart of the contrite.
I will not accuse them forever,
nor will I always be angry,
for then they would faint away because of me—
the very people I have created.
(Isaiah 57:14-16)
Clothing himself with humanity, we see Christ fulfilling this promise to be in and among all people, and especially near to those most likely to be overlooked or discarded.
Kissing The Leper: Seeing Jesus in the Least of These, pg 23, 24 by Brad Jersak






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