An article from Aelred, Midsummer, 2010.

There used to be a saying - many years ago - 'My dear, that, (or she/he) is truly divine!' Perhaps it belonged to the long ago era of the 1930s? There must be equivalents today but I rarely hear anything so chic! Presumably, to be humanly 'divine', is to exhibit some degree of perfection? If one is in some fortunate part of the planet there are undoubtedly many specimens of such perfection. The honeysuckle exudes an amazing (heavenly?) scent in the morning as I peep outside the door, and remains in full dress attire for the remaining hours of day and night. It is only the tip of the evolutionary iceberg of flora. Soon the honeysuckle will fade and the bees will have taken their nectar prizes. But there are the more permanent exhibits of 'divineness' among the fauna - the birds and foxes, dogs and cats of the domestic scene in many towns as well as country villages.

Amongst ourselves there lie the inner possibilities of divineness. Travelling on the tube can be an astonishing experience of humanness and in the facial expressions - the sudden smile, the anxious frown - the multitudinous individuality of 'being' is revealed: and the whisper of what we can only perceive as a divineness of that individual. But all our experiences are just as fleeting as the beauty and divineness of the honeysuckle. The dancer performs from an inner impulse from within her and shows the depth to which humans can respond to the music: but then pouf' - the moment has gone and cannot be recovered except in memory. As Eliot remarks, our experiences are fleeting, even if we are alive to what is happening around us. And yet, even in our 'unattended moments', he remarks that perhaps when we do not hear the music around us, it is yet within - 'but you are the music while the music lasts'.

However the idea of divineness in life challenges us because the other side of the picture is unremittingly human: terrible atrocities in various parts of the globe - wars - poverty and malnutrition and disease - greed and selfishness. So, is everything 'a distraction fit, lost in a shaft of sunlight'?

The remarkable thing, and to many people today the unbelievable thing, is that Christian faith understands that in Jesus we know one who was truly human and who is also truly divine, beyond the 'saint' of Eliot's poem. God planned, from the beginning, that there should be one among humans - and specifically, when the time came, from the people of Israel - who would be the forerunner of the life of 'perfection', of divineness for everyone. The gospels introduce this son of man - as man, one of us. The other writers in the New Testament - some writing earlier than the first three gospels - show that after the resurrection this son of man is also the divine son of the Father. Christian history is the story of the strife that these two statements about Jesus caused us. Even if separated by death and resurrection, how can the one person be fully human and also fully divine?

The problem is clearly demonstrated in Hebrews, first the divine-ness of the Son and then the total human-ness in life -

In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets; but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature, upholding the universe by his word of power. When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has obtained is more excellent than theirs. For to what angel did God ever say, "You are my Son, today I have begotten you"? (Hebrews 1: 1-5)

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same nature, that through death he might destroy him who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage. For surely it is not with angels that he is concerned but with the descendants of Abraham. Therefore he had to be made like his brethren in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make expiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered and been tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted. (Hebrews 2: 14-18)

I leave the tantalising prospect for you and others to come to an understanding that both these views are reconcilable and essential of the one person of Jesus the Lord. Like all 'puzzles' there are hazards which our forbears sometimes didn't see or didn't want to see when they engaged in theological argument. The various 'ages' of the centuries also had their own limitations of understanding. People of the 21st century are versed in evolutionary and gynecological understanding of persons. So the challenge is not only to discover whether there can be divineness among us, however fitfully, but how God's plan for us in Jesus, Son of man and Lord, can be understood today.