The Science of the Divine

After all the people had been baptized and Jesus also had been baptized and was praying,heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven,“You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” Luke 3:21-22

It is my belief that either we don't comprehend or we don't consider what it means to have access to the Divine. Baptism is the entry point; we enter into the Mystical Body of Christ and thus have the opportunity for grace in the sacramental life. As Paul says "it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me." The possibilities have become endless, the opportunities unmeasurable, the horizon far beyond what we could imagine. The ironic thing about our times is this: that in the belief that through self determination and free choice we will find a vast landscape, a freedom like no other, the clear message is that God is not one of those choices, thus we deny the Divine and now am left with only human possibilities. Jesus himself said "with God all things are possible" There is a science of the human body, a science of the physical world, a science of the universe beyond yet the most important science is that of the supernatural, divine life, available to all. We have in Jesus, a comrade, who reveals to us this that is something far beyond ourselves. Tertullian wrote in the third century on being baptized:

"Well, but how great is the force of perversity for so shaking the faith or entirely preventing its reception, that it impugns it on the very principles of which the faith consists! There is absolutely nothing which makes men's minds more obdurate than the simplicity of the divine works which are visible in the act, when compared with the grandeur which is promised thereto in the effect; so that from the very fact, that with so great simplicity, without pomp, without any considerable novelty of preparation, finally, without expense, a man is dipped in water, and amid the utterance of some few words, is sprinkled, and then rises again, not much (or not at all) the cleaner, the consequent attainment of eternity is esteemed the more incredible."