Jesus, most amiable, have mercy on us.
We don’t use the word “amiable” must these days, and when we do, we tend to mean that a person is friendly and pleasant, good-natured and easy to be around. But the word’s history runs much deeper than that. If we look back into the development of “amiable,” we see that it comes from the Latin verb amare, to love. So someone who is amiable is loving and lovable, and that, of course, describes Jesus perfectly.
Jesus, most admirable, have mercy on us.
“Admirable” is another word that has lost some of its force of meaning over the years. When we think of someone admirable, we might consider that person a good example, a role-model, someone we look up to and try to imitate. Jesus is certainly all of those, but if we look at the older meaning of the word, we, again, get a broader picture. In its foundational sense, something that is admirable is awe-inspiring, marvelous, amazing, truly wonderful, as in jaw-dropping, delightful beauty. Now that’s Jesus!
Jesus, mighty God, have mercy on us.
Our modern world tends to downplay Jesus’ divinity. It’s easier, after all, to see Jesus as a good man or a wise teacher or some kind of guru. That makes fewer demands on us. It lets us off the hook.
But it simply isn’t true. Jesus is fully human, but He is also fully God, completely and totally divine. And because He is God, Jesus is omnipotent, all-powerful. Yet He uses that power to love us more than we can even imagine.
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