Christian history reaches its crescendo in the resurrection. The Risen Jesus is the final revelation of the heart of God—a God who teaches love rather than hate, forgiveness rather than blame, non-violence rather than violence. Recall Jesus’s encounters with his disciples after his resurrection. He came to his followers with whom he had spent three years, the people closest to him who had nevertheless rejected, betrayed, and abandoned him. Following his resurrection, Jesus had the opportunity to chastise them. And yet, in all four Gospel accounts, we see that the Risen Jesus neither berates nor blames his disciples. Indeed, Peter, who had betrayed him three times, is given three chances to say “I love you” to his master.

There is nothing to fear in the Risen Christ. We have in him the perfect icon of a God who is safe. We have a God who does not blame, punish, threaten, or dominate. We have a God who breathes forgiveness. The entire biblical tradition has been moving to this moment where God is identified with universal forgiveness.Jesus’s resurrection tells us that there is no victory through domination. There is nosuch thing as triumph by force. By his life, death, and resurrection, Jesus stops the cycle of violence, challenging the notion of dominating power. He invites us to relational or spiritual power, where we are not changed but transformed.

Many of us identify more easily with the judging God we have encountered in childhood: the one who knows our every sin and metes out punishments, the one we must attempt to placate and please. We are often more comfortable living with a fearsome God than one whose love is boundless. But by his life, death, and resurrection, Jesus challenges us to new heights of redemptive forgiveness. Most of us cannot go for long without thinking a judgmental or accusatory thought about others. So often, there is someone we are judging, accusing, blaming. To live in the good, to live in the love, to live without a need to judge—that’s major surgery! None of usreaches that point early in life, but when we are there, we know that we are transformed. We are free. We are at one with the Risen Jesus. Once we have a personal experience in our own life with the Risen Christ (upholding, love, and freeing us), then we have nothing to fear. That is how secure Christ makes us, because we have a center point. We have received the gift of the Holy Spirit.

During a retreat, my fellow retreatants and I were asked to list the adjectives that each of us would use to describe Jesus. My list included words such as compassionate, self-confident, humble, and forgiving. When our leader brought us back together as a group, she suggested that the qualities we had identified represented not so much what Jesus was like, but what each of us wanted in ourselves. Jesus is the divine lure who invites us forward in our humanity, enticing us into these virtues by his own full living of them. The qualities I had on my list are indeed qualities Jesus possessed. But the reason we want to embrace them is because Jesus has set the standard, the ideal for humanity. In Jesus, we see the divine being who is also the perfect human being. Jesus comes in human form to show us the face of God, who is eternally compassionate and joyous, standing with us in our sufferings and joys. As Christians, our vocation is to unite with Christ—crucified and risen.

About the Author
Richard Rohr is a Roman Catholic Priest and Franciscan Friar. In addition to being a best-selling author, Father Rohr is an internationally known retreat leader, spiritual director, and social activist. If you enjoyed this week’s message, checkout “Bringing Home the Word” every Saturday at ccgronline.com.

CCGR Weekly Newsletter (4-15-18)
Bringing Home the Word (4-15-18)

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