..  Tracts  Our Lady of the Atonement Catholic Church  More Tracts

Father Christopher G. Phillips

How are we to understand the tremendous mystery described here by St. Paul?  First of all, we need to cast our minds back to our first parents, Adam and Eve.  Created in the image and likeness of God, they were placed in a perfect communion with their Creator.  They were told that all things were theirs, and that there was but one things they could not do; namely, that they were not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  That, of course, was the one thing that they were tempted to do -- and remember the words of Satan as he tempted Eve? He said, “Surely you will not die... no... your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as God Himself, knowing good and evil...”  This, then, was their sin: through their disobedience, they grasped at equality with God, and in so doing, they lost their relationship with God.

St. Paul reminds us that our Lord Jesus “did not regard equality with God something to be grasped...” -- in other words, Jesus did not need to snatch at equality with God; it is His by right.  And also, it means that He did not clutch at equality with God as something to hold jealously to himself... rather, He laid it down willingly for the sake of our salvation.

There were two great facts which Christ, during His earthly ministry, impressed upon His disciples: first, that He was the Messiah; and secondly, that He was a suffering Messiah.  All through the early part of His ministry, the first of these facts is prominent, and during this part of His ministry we hear very little about His death.  But after a time there comes a change. In other words, the first lesson has been learned, and the apostles have come to see in their Master the long-promised Messiah.  St. Peter’s confession has been made: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  And then what follows?  At once, our attention is taken by the striking words in Scripture, “From that time forth Jesus began to show to His disciples how that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many thing at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again on the third day.”  From that point onward, Christ speaks of His death as a necessity, as something indispensable.

The shadow of the Cross stretches over His life. He speaks of His blood as being “shed for the remission of sins,” and His body as being “given for” His disciples.  He says that He has come “to give His life as a ransom for many.”  And all of this prepares us for what we find in the teaching of the apostles; namely, that we find in their writings a great stress upon the death of Christ, and that the greatest blessings and highest gifts are always connected with His suffering and with the shedding of His blood.  Over and over throughout Scripture, we read of forgiveness, of redemption, of healing, of cleansing, of sanctification -- of atonement -- all won for us by the death of Christ -- all coming to us through that great fact of history, that He was “lifted up” upon the Cross, and there He died.

Here is the point that Christ makes: that when He is lifted up upon the Cross, He accomplishes the atonement -- “And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto myself...” He says.  The great gulf is bridged, and mankind is once more made “at one” with God, just as we were before the Fall of our first parents, Adam and Eve  -- and the gates of heaven are opened to us -- all through the lifting up of Christ, and His death upon the Cross.  How careful we must be to really grasp this truth!  How careful we must be not to reduce the atonement to simply speaking about the obedience of Christ as it is shown to us in His life and in His death.  We must not fall into that danger of thinking more of the example of Christ, than of His sacrifice.  That’s something of a temptation for some -- to think that if we simply imitate Christ, then that’s enough.  Now, certainly it is true, that all which He did and suffered for us is an example which is important to copy.  But if this is all there is to the Catholic faith, then it’s difficult to see why Christ’s life of perfect obedience should have been crowned by a death so bitter -- and why such importance is attached to that death.  If the example of obedience is all there is, then the crucifixion of Christ is no different than the death of the martyrs who suffered the Christ’s sake, or from the death of any good man who might have laid down his life for someone else.

We must cling to the fact that Christ is “the Lamb of God, that takes away the sins of the world,” and that by “the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all,” there was made “a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world.”  As we groan over the evil that is within us, we know the need we have for a true atonement -— not just a good example, but some eternal, Godly and forceful healing of our broken lives which have been maimed and crippled by sin.

Jesus did not say that He must be “lifted up” so that we could follow His good example -- otherwise, we could look to the example of any good person.  No..  He said that the Son of man must be lifted up, “that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” The death of Christ, therefore, must be regarded not as the unjust punishment inflicted upon an innocent victim -- but rather as the free self-offering of the Eternal Son of God -- a worthy oblation which cannot be measured.  Remember this: that there is nothing we can do in and of ourselves to merit God’s love, or earn our own salvation.  The purpose of seeking spiritual growth is only so that we can better serve the One who has earned our salvation for us, that is, Jesus Christ.  He was lifted up upon the Cross, so that we can be lifted up to heaven. He was broken so that we can be made whole.  The lesson we need to learn is to be learned at the foot of the Cross of Jesus Christ -- that even though we are sinful and fall short of the glory of God, in spite of it all, God loves us with that yearning, passionate love which led Him to give Himself to be lifted up for us.  Our hearts cannot help but be broken open to receive that Love which knows no rest and which never tires until it has found us, and has brought us to our true home in Christ’s kingdom.