As Jesus himself looks at himself-this is the first look. As Western theology has looked at Jesus - this is the second look. As the poor look at Jesus-this is the third look. The First and third Looks are first cousins. The Second Look is a distant relative.
Tire First and Third Looks are echoed in The Second Plenary Council of the Philippines (PCP II). Yet, because PCP ll is only a document and is only a beginning, the First and Third Looks are still sending beeper messages to much of Philippine catechesis, theology, liturgy, pastoral activity and even spirituality Biblical scholars use a supermarket of instruments-historical, archaeological linguistic, literary, form-critical, redactional, structural, sociological. This book
makes sober and discerning use of these instruments. But it adds another: the Third Look.
The Third Look is a set of eyeglasses ... It is indispensable for rediscovering the original Jesus.
This, of all the instruments for biblical interpretation, is by far the most important ... and the most neglected.
The oneness of all things in Christ is the Christian equivalent to the interconnectedness of all reality attested to by oriental and indigenous religions and by contemporary physics. There is also a way of knowing Jesus beyond the mind. It is being in touch with 'the Christ who lives in me' (Gal 2:20) without words, without thoughts: This silent way of 'knowing without knowing"is infinitely superior. There is no authentic knowing of Jesus without it.