In his passionately argued Rite and Reason article on February 6th, Father James O'Connell SMA reminded us that Jesus was a historical person and criticised modern theology for inadequately stressing this humanity.
The article sent me back to a remarkable piece on a similar theme by the novelist and biblical scholar, Reynolds Price, in Time Magazine of early December 1999.
Following some fascinating commentary on events in Jesus's life, Price recounted a personal experience which is truly riveting.
He argued, rightly, that Jesus of Nazareth has been "the single most powerful figure" in human history. Yet there is little of what would be termed actual historical evidence concerning him. The only substantial evidence is the four Gospels, "brief documents written in colloquial Greek late in the generation of those who knew Jesus first- or second-hand".
Time asked Price to choose and interpret certain episodes in the life of Jesus "based on the historical evidence and his reading of the Bible". He set out to examine such episodes "imaginatively but responsibly", adding a few notes on his sources. Some of these "notes" are full of insight, especially his observation on the Transfiguration.
The three apostles who witnessed Jesus's transfiguration - Peter, James and John - were shocked and frightened by what they saw, "yet each of them privately came to believe what they would tell one another only after his death".
Price's reading of this event is profound: "I imagine that for the three disciples, as for Jesus, this was the moment when they each began to comprehend the interim tragedy through which they had to pass."
Paul's I Corinthians, "If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is empty and your faith is empty", is seen by Price as the most difficult but truest test to many Christians and non-Christians alike. Christianity's existence and success have depended on such passionate belief.
The promises Jesus made in the Gospel of John have, in Price's words, "strengthened endangered men and women from the terrors of Roman martyrdom till today." Among those promises were: "Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in me."
One cannot prove that he was the Son of God, but any believer might argue that there is the possibility that Jesus was right. Although religious belief continues to decline, Price's following words still ring true: "Since his Resurrection, he has become - in the minds of billions - a transnational Messiah who continues to care for individual humans and to save them from internal and external evil."
Price himself has received such care in what might seem an extraordinary way. Fifteen years ago, while he was waiting to receive potentially devastating radiation for a 25cm-long spinal cancer, he felt himself transported fully awake to the shores of Lake Galilee.
Jesus's disciples were asleep and he motioned Price to follow him into the lake. When they were waist deep, Price felt Jesus pour handfuls of water down the scar on his back (a scar caused by unsuccessful surgery a month previously).
When Jesus suddenly said to him: "Your sins are forgiven," he ungratefully thought to himself that that was the last thing he needed. He asked if he was cured as well. "That, too," he was told.
Since that experience Price has had more surgery. It was successful but left his legs paralysed and he suffers much spinal pain. Despite all the treatment since, he has had no similar experience.
This tends to validate the uniqueness of the event for him, because if he could make up "one visionary self-consolation" why wouldn't he have repeated that comfort through worse suffering?
His doctors have been surprised that the cancer has not returned. His sense that Jesus of Nazareth was uniquely related to the Creator of the universe has strengthened; Jesus has not seemed any less mysterious to him but "the memory of the unstinting mercy in his grave face and eyes is indelible".
In the past three years I have undergone surgery twice for the removal of a brain tumour. Each time I have felt remarkably calm before going into the operating theatre, although I am not at all calm by nature. By the grace of Mary and Jesus I have come through the operations.
Brian Maye is an author, historian and regular contributor to The Irish Times