Day Fifteen: The Paschal Mystery, Part Three

“Students will be able to explain how we are made to Love and to be Loved, but our fixation on material Truth breaks up our relationship with God and prevents us from doing so.”

This is the first objective for this lesson. I know, this lesson is on the Paschal Mystery, but like any mystery, one of the first steps in solving the mystery of why God is willing to die for us is to understand His motive. That is, we can easily define the Paschal Mystery as the suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, but the why of the Paschal Mystery is found in understanding the condition we, His Beloved, His “Jewel of Creation”, are in.

Mary and the Child Jesus. Mary is considered, after Jesus, to be the most "fully human" in history. Her fiat "pierced her heart" in a way similar to how Jesus' side was pierced. Her humility helps her to "look like" God. St. Theresa Church Discalced Carmelites in Dublin, Ireland (photo P. Smith)

I review a bit. We are made in the Image and Likeness of God. That is, if we understand that God is Love and God is Community (Trinity), to say we are made in the Image and Likeness of God is to say that we are made to Love and to be Loved in the context of Community. The Authentic Self, to be “fully human”, then, is to Love and to be Loved beyond simple material Truths that we can observe. To be “fully human” is to Love and to be Loved in the way that God Loves and is Loved.

The difficulty in this dynamic is that as we are made in His Image and Likeness, we are also given Free Will. Indeed, God “freely” chooses to create us and to Love us, therefore, if we Truly are made in His Image and Likeness, we must also have that Freedom to choose. This Free Will, itself, is neither good nor bad, however. It is how we use Rational Thinking to guide Free Will so we can “look like” God.

Sin, by definition, is irrational as it is a Free Will choice to not “look like” God. It is a Free Will choice to fixate on material Truths of self, others, nature, etc… When we do this, we limit our vision to just what we can comprehend in time and space. This is ego-driven and focused on personal control of Truth. It is the opposite of the Image and Likeness of God, who is self-emptying Love. True Love is vulnerable, humble, and self-emptying. Free Will, rightly oriented, is a choice to be humble, and as God is humble, the choice to be humble is rational. Sin is focused on personal control and is not humble…it is irrational.

The Crucifixion, itself, reveals to humanity what God "looks like", perhaps not as we might observe first. Not as one who is poor, weak, shameful and suffering. Instead, He "looks like" one who is "free" from fixation on wealth, power, honor, or pleasure. St. Mary Pro Cathedral in Dublin, Ireland (photo P. Smith)

The Paschal Mystery (along with all of Salvation History) is God’s gift to us of what it means to be “fully human”. I introduce the idea of the Paschal Mystery to my students: “As sinners, we are irrational and prideful. We need a teacher who will show us how to ‘unlearn’ sin. The Paschal Mystery is God’s ultimate lesson of how to use Free Will so we can start to become our Authentic Self.”