Standing before Christ

Our society is arranged in such a way that in daily life we can act as if Christ does not exist.  Even worse, He has been banished from our society.  Wherever you look, in our schools, shops, banks, factories, in our daily intercourse, no trace of Him is to be found.  Instead we live in a world in which power and money, algorithms and efficiency run things. That may sound radical, but we only become really conscious of it when our life is hanging by a thread.  It is a well-known phenomenon that everything looks different to someone who has stood on the crystal bridge and comes back from a near-death experience.  What seemed important in our everyday existence suddenly becomes insignificant; and the seemingly insignificant sometimes turns out to have great value.  At the boundary between life and death our life appears as an open book, of which the pages are closely covered with writing: nothing of what we have thought, spoken and done is lost.  It is preserved, not in our memory, but in the consciousness of the Lord of our destiny.  Someone who came back from an experience on the boundary of death and life said: “His gaze brought about that I saw myself with His eyes.”

What was manifested in this exceptional experience will one day become reality for every human being.  “… all peoples of the earth will behold the Son of Man …,” says Christ (Mt.24:30) and John adds: “All eyes shall see Him, also the eyes of those who pierced Him” (Rev.1:7).   How can we prepare for that encounter?  And how shall we be able to keep our footing when one day we will stand eye to eye with the Son of Man?

In the Consecration of the Human Being there is one moment when we literally stand before Christ.  In that moment we give ourselves to Him as He gives Himself to us—unconditionally.  That is why the Communion is called the highest form of community.

When you receive this gift, know then: I stand before Him.  Even if I am blind, He sees me.  He gives Himself to me.  He touches me.  In this consciousness I prepare for the moment when I will see myself with His eyes.

Rev. Bastiaan Baan, Dec. 2022