scandal of particularity

 



This is the moment when if I am ever going to, I might gather in an understanding of “the scandal of particularity”. I have shied away from the word “scandal” most of my life! And prided myself on a broad lens which blurred the ordinary specifics and offered a general impressionistic vision. This false comfort has taken me far from my childhood love of gazing at ants or lying on my back to see a sky invaded by tree limbs of unique color and shape. 

The scandal of particularity, a phrase explained in detail by Walter Brueggemann, calls me back to the divinity in all things, to a more Franciscan appreciation of all creatures great and small. The scandal is the unexpected news that something radically new is happening. The particularity is that it is happening in the ordinary, small things in life. 

The scandal of particularity calls us to gaze into the ordinary until we realize the extraordinary! The most scandalous is of course Christmas when Love Incarnate was born in a very specific but humble stable with very ordinary animals and people. 

Breaking into a world shrouded in darkness, the news of Jesus Christ born in a stable was shattering. Love Incarnate is scandalous. The star of Bethlehem and the humble location, particular. 

It is okay to allow impressionism to color this brilliantly once the scandal is realized! 


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