What is the message in the verse from Matthew 5:18 as Jesus is teaching about the Law? Fr. Ron Rolheiser writes that the movement of God in Jesus Christ is a downward one, which invites us to enter into powerlessness; looking down, to investigate the small.
He goes on to write, “The incarnation, the central mystery of our Christian faith, invites us to look down, to investigate the small, to descend. Why? Because that is what God did in the incarnation. He emptied Himself, taking on the form of a slave. He became small, a helpless baby. Unfortunately, although we all know this theoretically, we often struggle to apply it practically. Usually, when we look for God, we look the other way, towards the sky. We investigate the powerful. We try to ascend.”
This downward movement that Rolheiser speaks of invites us to “look for God in the baby rather than in corporate magnate, the president, the prime minister, the rock star, the star athlete, the brilliant writer, the Nobel prize-winning scientist, or the Hollywood god or goddess. It is not that God cannot be present in these. It is just that, given the movement of the incarnation, if we are looking for God these days, we should be looking close to the ground, we should be investigating the small, we should be looking at the baby.”
One of the challenges in walking the path of Christ in our life is understanding, as Rolheiser notes, “To be Christian, to be persons who keep giving flesh to God in this world, we must, ultimately, be free of the tyranny of ambition and achievement, of measuring our meaning and success from what gives us upward mobility. A useful criterion to discern whether we are following Christ or following our own desires (under the guise of following Christ) is precisely whether we are moving upward or downward. Are we deeming equality with God as something to be grasped at? Are we growing in power, prestige, and admiration? Or, are we emptying ourselves and assuming the powerlessness of the poor? There should be no delusion. The Christ-movement is downward.” [Excerpt from Ron Rolheiser’s “The Christ Movement Downward,” November 1995]
