Jesus is a strange and disconcerting figure. His words are biting and odd. They are elusive and obscure. At the same time, they command attention and demand a response. His actions are similar. He’s not what is expected. He’s dangerous. He’s impossible to ignore.

The religious and political leaders of his day understood this. That’s why they crucified him.

If you are familiar with the portrait of God built up in the Old Testament, maybe you are not so surprised about Jesus. If that God, the God of Israel becomes human, you are going to get an irrepressible wildfire, an elusive, odd, dangerous One, beyond our control and manipulation, and yet close, too close, too committed for comfort.

You are going to get a God who, as man, fully, even ‘wildly,’ devotes himself to the end he has for his good creation, despite our best attempts to wrest our own little piece of it from him for our ridiculous and narrow designs. You are going to get a God who, as man, irreparably binds, weds himself to humanity in unimaginable impassioned love.

You are going to get a God who, as man, provokes his own inevitable suffering and death at the hand of his beloved. He’s ineffable, inscrutable, uncontainable, unstoppable. He’s definitely not safe. No! He’s too good to be safe. There’s only ever more mystery to him.

Alas we have our own two-thousand-years-after-the-event strategies for handling Jesus. We can’t kill him. We are the ones who love him and want to be faithful to him above all else. Nevertheless, we tend to domesticate him, rounding off the hard edges, softening the sharp and pointed words, managing his frightening actions that, for fear, we refuse to ponder too long. We cage him up, privatising, declawing our religion, wheeling him out for a quick show when it’s convenient, keeping him hidden away when it’s not. We are expert at making him beneficial, conventional, docile, safe.

But the Church—and the Holy Spirit who guides her—won’t let us do this for long. Look at this week’s readings. With Jesus’ parables, we’ve got the Living God speaking to us and teaching us. With his actions, we’ve got the Living God at work in the world.

Today’s Old Testament reading anticipates this. The New Testament reading helps us ponder it. And as we pass through these readings, brace yourself for the encounter? That’s the shape of the Mass.

The lion paces. He’s going to break out of his cage. He’s going to find you. He always does. No one can keep him at a safe distance. He’s already stalking among us. He’s going to rule this world, destroying death and sin and evil once and for all. Don’t let go of his mane! Hold on; hold firm. He will leap and the never-ending day will dawn.

W Chris Hackett

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