Holy Jesus, Gentle Friend

God Glorifies Himself in the Human: A Christological Anthology

St Colmcille

God Glorifies Himself in the Human: A Christological Anthology

1. God Glorifies Himself in the Human (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Christology Lectures)

2. He is God, He is All Things (Melito of Sardis, On Pascha)

3. God Could Not Not Save Us (Athanasius, On the Incarnation)

4. What Happens with Jesus is How God is God (Jenson, Systematics Vol 1)

5. He Does Not Suffer the Fact That He Suffers (Cyril, On the Unity of Christ)

6. Christ is Not a Principle (Yannaras, Elements of Faith)

7. The Israelite Heals—That’s All You Need to Know (McCarthy, The Passenger)

8. Jesus is Not Christ Without Us (Symeon the New Theologian, First Ethical Discourse)

9. Empty Tomb, Empty Throne (Rowan Williams, On Christian Theology)

I hope to continue to add depth and texture to the anthology but sharing different kinds of texts. This selection is a small piece from the Broom of Devotion, an 8th century Irish prayer (using this translation by Oliver Davies). I would suggest praying it a few times, and not just reading it!

O holy Jesus,
Gentle friend,
Morning star,
Midday sun adorned,
Brilliant flame of righteousness, life everlasting and eternity,
Fountain ever-new, ever-living, ever-lasting,
Heart’s desire of patriarchs
Longing of prophets,
Master of apostles and disciples,
Giver of the Law,
Prince of the New Testament,
Judge of doom,
Son of the merciful Father without mother in heaven,
Son of the true virgin Mary, without father on earth,
True and loving brother,
Grant us your holy grace. 

A few reflections:

1. “Holy Jesus” — Not Jesus as I’ve imagined him, but as he truly is in himself.

2. “Gentle friend” — It’s not too much to say that intimate friendship with Jesus is the heart of the Johannine tradition, as comes clear in the deceptively deep closing lines of 3 John: “I hope to see you soon, and we will talk together face to face. Peace to you. The friends send their greetings. Greet the friends there, each by name.” This reverence for John the Beloved and the desire to imitate his life deeply shaped Celtic Christianity.

3. “Morning star… Fountain” — The next lines of the litany build, showing (in images drawn straight from John’s Gospel) how Jesus is life everlasting as light that burns brighter and brighter—notice we move from “morning star” through “midday sun adorned” not into the darkness of the night but into the “brilliant flame” of God’s own righteousness—until all things are shining, and as living water that springs up ever new so all who are thirsty may find the same joy the Samaritan woman found in the one who met her at the father’s well.

4. “Heart’s desire… Longing… Master” — The same crescendoing affect is seen in the next lines, as well. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob longed for the life of Jesus, and their longing intensified over the generations so that their heirs, the prophets, were consumed by the desire. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel—they became all thirst, all flame. And it is all fulfilled in the Master who is among us not as a master but as one who serves.

5. “Giver… Prince… Judge” — The same Jesus who taught the apostles taught Moses. In him, Gospel and Law are one in the same way that flame and fountain are one. In him, all is life.

6. “Son…brother” — This Jesus, the holy one, is truly our brother—more truly than our own kin can yet be, because of the limitations of flesh and blood—both as the Son of the Father and as son of Mary.

7. “Grant us your holy grace” — His judgement, his doom is one we have no need to fear. At the end, our friend shares his heart with us. With him, all is grace—not grace as we’ve imagined it, but as it really is in him and because of him.