The challenge that Jesus gives to us is to act with self emptying generosity. This is not an intellectual or even a moral challenge. It is a challenge of the imagination. It is a challenge that calls on us to think of "what might be if...." As a result of thinking like this we create new possibilities that are counter cultural, counter intuitive and certainly not what society expects.
And it is inevitable that we are hesitant to follow the example of Jesus as counter intuitive and counter cultural action needs courage. By pausing before we act we are given time to override our gut reactions, hard wired into our brain as survival mechanisms, alongside fight or flight, appetite and motor movement.
When struggling to follow Jesus we pause and say a little prayer and in that moment we can move from the primitive gut reactions in the core of our hard wired brain to the graced wisdom that allows us to choose to do something that is not dictated by narrow survival thinking.
In the life and teaching of Jesus we can see many examples of counter intuitive and counter cultural action, graced by God. We need to study the life and teaching of Jesus to open our imaginations to the possibilities of living and acting in a completely different way. The gospels are a wonderful resource for the graced, generous imagination and studying the life of Jesus will help us to develop new ways of living.
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