The word satisfaction is full of meaning for me. Besides T. S. Eliot's Journey of the Magi, there is the final word on Job (Job 42:17). And Job died old and sated of days. And someone asked recently - what is morality? Here is a definition in a few words. A moral act is one where the actor does not take satisfaction at another's expense. This statement is the complement of one by Bishop Stephen Neill who remarked many years ago that love is the directed action of the will for the good of another.
But there is one who gave his life for the life of the world. He invites us to use his love for our satisfaction at his expense. This is a bit like having your cake and eating it too. (For holding things together that are mutually contradictory, see this most recent post by Nicholas Knisely, the Dean of Trinity Cathedral in Phoenix Arizona. I often share his posts.)
Bob,
ReplyDeleteSorry this is off topic for this post but I was afraid you might miss my question on an older post:
http://meafar.blogspot.com/2010/03/song-of-songs-which-is-of-solomon-part_19.html?showComment=1274806628772#c4310288768329042074
Charis
Thanks Charis - I have got your other comment.
ReplyDeleteTake care in reading my personal translations. Scholar is a questionable adjective for me. I can only say that I have read some Hebrew (about 20% of the TNK) and a fair amount of scholarship about it. As I move on to Esther, I find how limited my knowledge is of the tongues from which Hebrew borrowed to pen this fifth scroll.
I am a scholar in the sense that I study and keep on learning.
I am wrestling with the meaning of 'Christ' - should we always think Jesus or does Christ as Anointing encompass more than we allow with our assumptions? I note how often New Testament authors phrase the Anointed both before, after, with and without Jesus, or the Son in their writing.
I am in this Christ in a mystery - and I stretch for words to express this love.