RBWords

     When I graduated from Tulane Law School (Oh so many years ago!), the Louisiana Bar Association sponsored a program called "Bridging the Gap."  It was meant to introduce idealistic young law school graduates to the "real life" of the practice of law by bringing in prominent practitioners in various specialities to talk about their experiences.  In a real sense it was meant to bring us "down to earth."  In the Gospel According to John, one of the overall ideas is that Jesus comes "down" from heaven and returns "up" to heaven.  Scholars call this the "exitus/reditus" theme.  However, in contrast to the law school image, Jesus bridges the gap so that those who believe in him may be with him and have eternal life.  So the emphasis is on bringing what is "below" to what is "above."  This idea of Jesus as the bridge between heaven and earth would find special prominence in the DIALOGS of the great Dominican mystic, St. Catherine of Siena.

     For some, the Gospel According to John seems rather abstract and too far "above" human experience.  Yet, the "discourses" in the first twelve chapters of this gospel (what scripture scholars call "the Book of Signs") seem to follow on encounters between Jesus and individuals like Nicodemus, the Samaritan Woman, the Crippled Beggar, the Man Born Blind and Lazarus.  It is in these encounters that what is above bridges the gap to what is below.  Our own experience can tell us that if we are open to an "encounter" with Jesus, we will experience something beyond what our "earthly" expectations can provide.  The encounter may be brief.  The guards sent by the chief priests and Pharisees came back empty-handed in a physical sense but filled with wonder in another: "Never before has anyone spoken like this one." (John 7:46).  Are we open to Jesus' invitation to "bridge the gap?"  AMEN