3. Blood Circulating in the Body of the Cosmic Christ

But how could we humans possibly share in the divine life of God? How could we, who are finite beings, be united with the infinite God? There is an infinite chasm between us finite human beings and God. We cannot leap over the abyss separating the finite from the infinite. We need a lifeline of some kind to be thrown across to us from the shores of infinity, a bridge of some sort that will span the abyss and enable us to cross over into the divine realm. Jesus Christ is that lifeline; Jesus Christ is that “vaulting bridge”[i] who spans the abyss separating us finite beings from the infinite God. Jesus has forever united the human with the divine in himself, thereby making space for all human beings (indeed, the entire cosmos!) within the divine life of God. Think about it: God and humanity, the infinite and the finite, united in the one person of Jesus Christ, in such a way that the path for us to transcend our finitude and participate in the infinity of Being, to share in the divine life of God forever, has been opened up to all human beings and to the entire cosmos. Seemingly impossible; seemingly incredible. But if it is true (which it is), then this one person would be the answer to the riddle of human existence. That is why our individual destinies are determined by our answer to the single most important question confronting us in life: Yes or No to Jesus Christ, which is a Yes or No to love and therefore a Yes or No to God and to our ultimate fulfillment as human beings. We were all born to be “blood circulating in the Body of the cosmic Christ”, in Balthasar’s beautiful phrase.[ii] By uniting ourselves to the Body of Christ, we are united with God and with all the other members of that Body. By uniting ourselves to the Body of Christ, we join in the eternal circulation of love that is the divine life and find therein our ultimate fulfillment.
[i] Balthasar, Prayer, 207.
[ii] Balthasar, Heart of the World, 212.