Since today is Good Friday, a singularly bleak day in the Christian calendar, I thought I would take a moment to reflect on the meaning of the Pascal Sacrifice.
Of course, the mythology tells us that Christ was incarnated in the flesh in order to redeem mankind from sin and to liberate those trapped in Hell by dying on the cross. Superficially, it is easy to see this action simply as one of the deepest love and conviction. At another glance, it seems to me to become a quagmire of questions. How does God incarnate himself into one singular human being when God supposedly exists within all things? One only has to read the beginning of St. Augustine's Confessions in order to see how this is a conundrum in itself. But it is highly relevant for our discussion here. If God is within everything, including "sinful" humanity, then what is Christ? Metaphysically speaking, he is co-equal with the Father and the Holy Spirit, and he is also the Logos, the Word of God - the mouthpiece and inventor of the Divine Will. But this still doesn't help us understand his incarnated form as both God and man. How can everyone be made of God, be a part of God's body, and there be only one Son? And if all of this "stuff" is also God, who is supposedly infinite and eternal, how can it "die" in the first place? Can we not only say that it appears to die?
The only solution that I can remotely come up with is that we are all the Son of God. Therefore, we must all equally partake in the Passion, and we are all enduring its trials, its temptations, and pains, its changeability as opposed to the divine's constancy. The Passion becomes not a literally story about the redemption of man, but is revealed to be a deeply moving allegory about the nature of divinity in its relationship with that which it has created. We are taught that God sacrifices Himself out of love. Therefore, we must draw the conclusion that God loves not only us humans, but loves the gross and the fine equally. The term "sacrifice" implies this, as well as the old medieval adage that Christ dies a dishonorable death, one suited for common criminals. God humbles Himself in order to love and admire his own creation, his own Self. For how can a Being that is One distinguish any part of itself? How can it say that it loves anything if it sees everything as one and equal with itself? Love therefore demands divine sacrifice.
How, then, does this affect the most crucial aspect of the myth? - that Christ's sacrifice opens the door to Heaven. I believe there are several ways we have to look at it. Firstly, if we consider the sacrifice in terms of God's general incarnation - the divine becoming mortal and becoming subject to change in order to experience itself - then the Paradise that is opened is not one beyond our reach, but is rather the world we are exposed to by living. Another way of looking at it is that, since Christ also represents the recognition that the human contains and literally is the divine, Christ's sacrifice provides us with the opportunity to understand our divine natures. By doing so, we come to understand that we are here for love, and that all our experiences happen for love. Everything we see as painful can also be seen as an expression of divinity's intense love. It loves what it has created so much to the point where it is willing to surrender itself unto endless terrible experiences. It never questions these experiences either. Christ gives in quite willingly, and tells us to literally "turn the other cheek."
Now, Christ is also a King of Glory. This humility must not be taken to extremes. The Crown of Thorns is a symbol of triumph through adversity, and we must all wear our respective Crowns with pride and eagerness, not with shame and despair. Simply being in existence warrants the crown of paradise - there is little reward beyond this. The only other reward is love in its purest sense! It is not love that hinges on expectations, falsity, and foolishness, rather, it is the love of a lover that has so forceful a faith in itself that it believes that the death/surrender of love cannot destroy it. It sees dissolution into the beloved (in this case Christ as the lover dissolves himself in physical death and pain - the ultimate condition of his beloved, corporeality) as an opportunity only for joy and pleasure. It is fearless, and bears no inhibitions.
Since everything in the physical world then is a sacrifice of sorts on the part of the divine, then the idea of sacrifice nullifies itself. Again, there is only love - there is no greater love. This analysis begs the question, "why do we give things up for Lent?" Is it not enough that we take a whole month to egotistically celebrate ourselves as beings who undergo sacrifice for love? It's ironic in this light, isn't it? It's as if humanity has been playing the largest prank possible on itself. Happy April Fool's Day! it would seem. So Easter should not remind you that you are a sinful being, racked with guilt and grief. It should not hammer into you the idea that the only recompense is self-sacrifice. It should, however, remind you that you are constantly going through this self-sacrifice already, and that it is a wonderful, amazing, miraculous experience. The only thing which you should feel guilty of is not enjoying it all enough.
This is the Kingdom of Heaven. Its doors have been opened for you in all sincerity and love. It is a virginal paradise, with inexhaustible potential. Learn to make use of it.
Image: The Crucifixion by Raphael
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