I am at work right now, on break, and I have been contemplating something that those of us who think and do theology often quickly move through—too quickly. The ineffable nature of what we have been given through Christ’s mediation of God-self to us is absolutely astounding—I know, duh! But, for some reason I was just struck with the immensity of it all; the amazing concreteness of it (if this can be said to be concrete, i.e. the realization). What I am talking about is the reality of what has happened through the ‘wonderful exchange’ (mirifica commutatio); the fact that we literally are participants in God’s life through Christ by the Spirit’s recreative work in the resurrection. That God has chosen to not be God without us (how this discussion works out, i.e. the constitutive nature of this for God’s life is a story for another day). He has forever elected us for himself, as he elected our humanity for himself; this as God’s pre-destination which has been realized in the prefigural, preincarnate history of Israel, and consummated in the incarnate life of the Son of God become man. Just meditate on this; it should lead to doxology, as should all good theological thinking. Back to work …