Reality check

Some people see Jesus as something like a cross between Leo Buscaglia and St. Thomas More: “A Hug for All Seasons.”

In today’s readings, however, we hear things about our Lord that may be described as “distancing.”

In the Gospel, he “withdraws,” he doesn’t want his identity disclosed, and he orders up a boat to protect him from the crowd. In the first reading, he is described as “separated from sinners” and not “on earth.”

We need to maintain a good balance in our relationship with the Lord.

It is important – indeed, it is critical – that we strive to have a relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that is ever more intimate and loving. Yet it is also necessary for us to appreciate that in a very real way the Lord is absolutely untouchable, sacred, holy.

It is only by his grace that we can have the loving, intimate relationship he calls us to enjoy and we appreciate the wonder of that grace all the more when we appreciate that the one "who dwells in unapproachable light" (1 Tim. 6:16) loves us and enables us to love him.