O God, whose Only Begotten Son has appeared in our very flesh, grant, we pray, that we may be inwardly transformed through him whom we recognize as outwardly like ourselves.
The expression “Outwardly like our selves” is reminiscent of Docetism, an early heresy which maintained that Jesus simply appeared as a man, that his humanity was only an appearance, not a reality.
Dear Xandro,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the alert to the words we use, which both reflect the images we have, and also serve to form our images.
In this prayer, it helps me to stop with the verb recognize. The Jesus I recognize today,Jan.7, is the happy guest at a wedding party (at Cana).