why ‘dim reflections’?

All my reflections, including of my self, are partial. “Now we see in a mirror dimly”. Darkly, as in a riddle. Now, as in this lifetime, all our perspectives are inescapably limited.

Limited in at least 3 ways: 1) completeness with respect to context; 2) clarity with respect to content; and 3) confidence with respect to accuracy.

1) I can’t escape the particularity of my subjectivity. I’m always bounded to some extent by my uniquely limited context. But there are corners of overlap with others. We have shared contexts, too.

2) Reality always outruns expression. Ineffability is an irreducible feature of life. But that doesn’t delegitimize our efforts to communicate with one another, in language or otherwise. Our words can meet even though our perspectives can never quite match.

3) From 1) and 2) it follows that “confidence in the flesh” can never be assured. Just to be human is to “walk by faith and not by sight.” The only alternative is delusion.

Unless a truth is necessary, it is necessarily incomplete. To whatever extent it is meaningful to say that my perspective is ‘true’, I still only know it partially. That my view of what is true is limited is the one thing I know to be true.

So I embrace humility. I befriend uncertainty. I am at peace with ambivalence.

But only by faith. I try not to fear the worst consequences of my limitations — my weaknesses — because I trust that I have glimpsed the reality of a truer reflection. And by extension, a truest reflection. This is Jesus.

Reflection is an imperfect analogy, but Jesus nevertheless reflects the original — God the Father. “He is the image of the invisible God” and “the exact representation of His being.”

An epiphany is an “appearance.” Jesus appears in the world.

It’s commonplace to contrast “appearance” with “reality” because we know things are not always (or ever?) as they appear to be. Jesus is real. But we’re confined to pondering his appearance from our own perspectives. A revelation of God is no less real or true because it is limited or incomplete. The partiality, the particularity, the subjectivity of Jesus is itself the revelation of God.