Looking at the present state of the human race riddled with violence, ignorance, superstitions, diseases, calamities like earthquakes and floods, terrorism, wars, poverty and all those circumstances forcing people to live under subhuman conditions, how can we meaningfully talk about the relevance of the Son of Man for today? We propose here that all the ills of the human race arise out of a defective self-understanding of the humans that is a result of their convoluted understanding of God. This situation may be corrected by means of a right understanding of the Son of Man, which should be able to empower humanity to transform itself and its surroundings solving all the ills of the human race. This is so because we believe that the harmony and balance intended by God at the beginning of the creation of the Universe were shattered by a false understanding of the relationship between the humans and God by the first parents of the human race. The Son of Man shows us the way to regain the lost relationship between the humans and God thereby re-introducing the harmony and balance between the humankind and nature as a whole. We shall discuss these items very briefly under the themes of the 'concept of the humans' and the 'concept of God' in the present Post followed by the one on the 'concept of the Son of Man'.
The concept of the humans is operative in creating our world in our own image and thus our self-understanding of ourselves plays the pivotal role in forming the shape of the world we live in. The world turns out to be a mirror image of the humans at different periods and ages from the beginning of the human race. Therefore, it is sufficient to look at the world in order to grasp the concept of humanity entertained by it at each stage of its existence. The manifold cultures, languages, customs, religions, arts and literature, philosophy and theology, poetry, building activities, social orders and practices, etc., reveal the concept of humanity developed and cherished by each generation and groups of people in their day to day life. Most of these efforts of the humans are based on the external realities readily accessible to it, ignoring the wealth of the internal realities contained in the humans themselves. As a result, many of their self-expressions do not succeed in developing a comprehensive concept of the humans in spite of the fact that they are pleasing to them. They experience a kind of trauma in their own being although they try to remedy the feeling of inadequacy by resorting to various types of quick-fixes like acquiring wealth and power, indulging inordinately in the pleasures of the senses, etc. The most one can expect from these tricks is to numb one's conscience leading such people to a kind of hallucination of happiness resulting in bigger traumas in due course. Happiness is the goal of everyone for which desperate attempts are made by the humans centering all their efforts on themselves as self-sufficient that is self-defeating. The humans cannot be meaningfully defined without reference to the Divine Reality for which the concept of God, understood correctly, is absolutely necessary. The biblical understanding of the humans as created in the image and likeness of God (Genesis, 1: 26) is an apt frame of reference in understanding the concept of the humans in its total and genuine reality. In a true and wholesome view of the humans, there would emerge the concept of God and the two of them interpenetrate and interpret each other.
Although we may form the concept of God from the realities of the external world and through philosophical investigations, it is through self-reflection and meditation that the humans are able to arrive at the concept of a living God. We may see here the role of genuine religious thought that is necessarily geared to an understanding and acceptance of a true concept of God. When the humans search reflectively into the inner recesses of their own being, they are bound to come up with the concept of God as the ground and foundation where their own being is anchored. The sense of finiteness and imperfections arising out of their own infirmities accelerates this process of reflection seeking liberation from this world. Death, by itself, is not a solution to the intimate cravings of the humans to be happy forever that is possible only in union with God, the source of all happiness and bliss. At the same time, no one is able to circumvent the necessity of death to overcome the tyranny of which we are invited to die daily to our selves so that a new person is born in each one of us. The new person, reborn in the spirit, is beyond the clutches of death and is thus already liberated even while living in this present world. The full measure of this liberation will be realized after our departure from this world. For this kind of a life, it is necessary to accept God not only as the source and creator of everything, but also as the goal and end of everything. God is Himself Spirit and whoever worships God should do so in spirit and in truth (John, 4:24). (To be Cont'd)
The concept of the humans is operative in creating our world in our own image and thus our self-understanding of ourselves plays the pivotal role in forming the shape of the world we live in. The world turns out to be a mirror image of the humans at different periods and ages from the beginning of the human race. Therefore, it is sufficient to look at the world in order to grasp the concept of humanity entertained by it at each stage of its existence. The manifold cultures, languages, customs, religions, arts and literature, philosophy and theology, poetry, building activities, social orders and practices, etc., reveal the concept of humanity developed and cherished by each generation and groups of people in their day to day life. Most of these efforts of the humans are based on the external realities readily accessible to it, ignoring the wealth of the internal realities contained in the humans themselves. As a result, many of their self-expressions do not succeed in developing a comprehensive concept of the humans in spite of the fact that they are pleasing to them. They experience a kind of trauma in their own being although they try to remedy the feeling of inadequacy by resorting to various types of quick-fixes like acquiring wealth and power, indulging inordinately in the pleasures of the senses, etc. The most one can expect from these tricks is to numb one's conscience leading such people to a kind of hallucination of happiness resulting in bigger traumas in due course. Happiness is the goal of everyone for which desperate attempts are made by the humans centering all their efforts on themselves as self-sufficient that is self-defeating. The humans cannot be meaningfully defined without reference to the Divine Reality for which the concept of God, understood correctly, is absolutely necessary. The biblical understanding of the humans as created in the image and likeness of God (Genesis, 1: 26) is an apt frame of reference in understanding the concept of the humans in its total and genuine reality. In a true and wholesome view of the humans, there would emerge the concept of God and the two of them interpenetrate and interpret each other.
Although we may form the concept of God from the realities of the external world and through philosophical investigations, it is through self-reflection and meditation that the humans are able to arrive at the concept of a living God. We may see here the role of genuine religious thought that is necessarily geared to an understanding and acceptance of a true concept of God. When the humans search reflectively into the inner recesses of their own being, they are bound to come up with the concept of God as the ground and foundation where their own being is anchored. The sense of finiteness and imperfections arising out of their own infirmities accelerates this process of reflection seeking liberation from this world. Death, by itself, is not a solution to the intimate cravings of the humans to be happy forever that is possible only in union with God, the source of all happiness and bliss. At the same time, no one is able to circumvent the necessity of death to overcome the tyranny of which we are invited to die daily to our selves so that a new person is born in each one of us. The new person, reborn in the spirit, is beyond the clutches of death and is thus already liberated even while living in this present world. The full measure of this liberation will be realized after our departure from this world. For this kind of a life, it is necessary to accept God not only as the source and creator of everything, but also as the goal and end of everything. God is Himself Spirit and whoever worships God should do so in spirit and in truth (John, 4:24). (To be Cont'd)
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