Has Jesus Truly Saved Us?

 

Sunday, April 23, 2023

   In today’s second reading, Peter speaks of “the price of our ransom” being paid, and that this “was paid not in anything perishable like silver or gold, but in (the) precious blood as of a blameless and spotless lamb, Christ”.  

Now, these words of Peter are very problematic.  For if we take these words of Peter literally, wouldn’t we be implying that our God is a blood-thirsty and ransom-seeking God, who demands either an animal or human sacrifice. And doesn’t such a belief go completely against the Abba Father God that Jesus introduced us to - the one who forgives the prodigal son even before he repents, who tells Peter that we must forgive 70 times 7, and is a father who sends his rain down on the just and the unjust. So, what could such blood ransom language that we find in today’s second reading mean?  

We can make sense of such language if we accept, as St. Thomas Aquinas taught us, that all language about God is ‘analogical’.  Analogical language is not language to be taken in its literal meaning.  For instance, we all know that a metaphor explains things to us by comparing one thing to another.  So, when Shakespeare writes: My love is like a red red rose” it would be foolish of us to take such language literally and challenge such a statement by asking: Then where are the thorns, where are the petals etc ?   Similarly analogical language about God is a kind of language that points us in the direction of truth as long as we do not take such language in its literal meaning.  So, for example, if we believe “God is Father”, then such a statement is telling us something about how God relates to us, and we should not use such a statement to argue about the gender of God.

If then the language about Jesus paying a blood ransom to God to redeem us is analogical language, then it would seem that we need to interpret it.

One way of understanding the fact that Jesus’ death redeems all of us, can perhaps be found in the idea that sometimes an individual’s sufferings or the sufferings of a group, can be redemptive for many.  

For instance, sometimes when there is a sudden suffering in a family, (e.g. when a child is born with multiple disabilities, or a member of the family suddenly faces a life-threatening disease or is hurt badly), the family members change in their behaviours and attitudes. Of course, sometimes such unjust suffering changes some of us in unhappy ways, and we become bitter or curse God. But sometimes the change is positive, and suddenly the best in ourselves emerges. In such a case, for instance, family members sometimes become far more caring, far more concerned, not only about that suffering family member, but even about others who suffer in a similar manner. And so, these family members experience ‘metanoia’ ie. a transformative change of heart, or a significant change of their entire personalities.  They become less self-centred, they become better persons, they tend to move out of their normal earlier first-take-care-of-yourself attitude towards life.  

A similar kind of change could also happen when suddenly our conscience as a human race is jolted when we see events unfold around us - like the Holocaust in Germany, or the unjust police killings of the black community in the US, or even when there is a mass killing or starvation of human beings anywhere. And such horrific sufferings of large numbers of our fellow humans shake us up. We somehow cannot be the same, nor can we continue to remain in our own individual or family cocoon. We may experience a powerful and transformative change of heart; we may feel called upon to take a stand.    

Even in our everyday lives, when we see someone wronged or unjustly suffering, we are affected, we are changed at least a little bit.  Unjust suffering is like that, - it tugs at our hearts, it urges us to do something if we can, and even if we can’t, we somehow would like to do something.    

In that sense the unjust sufferings of one or many becomes redemptive to other human beings, or in Christian terms, we are ‘saved’ by such suffering.   Christians believe that the unjust sufferings of Jesus do have this transformative power, and that it can redeem us, save us. And so, Francis of Assisi sees and holds the crucified Lord in his arms (in his vision), and it changes his life completely, and he is redeemed. Christians also believe, that in actual fact, the life and sufferings of Jesus have indeed transformed the world, saved the world.

But of course, as mentioned earlier, such unjustified suffering of innocents, MAY or MAY NOT “save” people. This reality fits in with Catholic teaching, for the Church has never taught that just because of Jesus’ redemptive actions, ALL people are automatically saved.  It only teaches that such redemption is available to all.  What seems to be the case is that normally our movement towards God, towards being “saved”, is often jump-started by such a transformative experience, - and we begin to feel an inner urge to do something to make the world a little better place.  And so, it is only then that we begin to be saved.

In the Gospel, we are told the story of the two disciples who are running away from Jerusalem in fear.  Suddenly Jesus, whom they don’t recognize initially, appears before them and after letting them express their fear and deep disappointments, asks them: “Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer before entering into his glory?” Thus, he reminds them of a reality we see around us all the time, that people who are good, who stand up for justice, often suffer much.  We ourselves have probably often asked ourselves the question: How does God allow a good person who has done so much good for others, how does God allow such persons to suffer so much? Or as some have asked recently: Why did God allow Fr. Stan Swamy to suffer so much?  Or why did the Staines family which had done so much good for so many lepers for so many years, have to be so brutally killed.  And how did Gladys Staines forgive the murderers, as Stan Swamy forgave his tormentors? Jesus’ own answer to the disheartened disciples was that the path of suffering was necessary in order to be saved and enter into glory. Please remember that Jesus does NOT tell them that he had to suffer and die in order to satisfy God through a blood sacrifice or ransom, but that suffering is necessary, like fire, to purify us. That answer of Jesus may not be an answer we are happy to live with, but that is the only answer that Jesus gave. 

And when the disciples are taught this lesson by Jesus on the road to Emmaus, they have two choices, like we have. They can get angry and denounce God and all suffering, or they can find that answer transformative and empowering enough so that they are no longer afraid, and they go back to Jerusalem and tell the others that the Jesus they knew still lives.  He lives in them, and they like the Apostles are empowered to live like Jesus, ready to suffer, and ready to spread his message.  

So the question for each of us today is this: Have the sufferings of Jesus actually become redemptive for each of us? Does the story of Jesus’ suffering and death empower us enough to stand up for truth and justice - and suffer in the bargain if necessary, like Jesus? Are we ready to accept the reality that standing up for what is good and right and just,  almost inevitably leads to suffering - and are we ready for that?  Like Jesus, we do not have to ask for or invite suffering , but we do need to stand up for what is right and just, - knowing fully well that almost inevitably, it may entail suffering.  If, by looking towards Jesus and his life, we are empowered to do that, then we become a different kind of person, an alter Christus, or another Christ, - and then indeed Jesus’ suffering becomes redemptive for us,and we can truly say that Jesus saves/saved us. Of course, a troublesome corollary is that if we have not been transformed so that we do not feel the urge to make the world beyond our immediate self (and oftentimes our families are just our extended selves) a little better place, then we could ask ourselves whether in fact we have been saved.

Second Reading, 1 Peter 1:17-21

17 And if you address as Father him who judges without favouritism according to each individual's deeds, live out the time of your exile here in reverent awe.

18 For you know that the price of your ransom from the futile way of life handed down from your ancestors was paid, not in anything perishable like silver or gold,

19 but in precious blood as of a blameless and spotless lamb, Christ.

20 He was marked out before the world was made, and was revealed at the final point of time for your sake.

21 Through him you now have faith in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory for this very purpose -- that your faith and hope should be in God.

 

Gospel, Luke 24:13-35

13 Now that very same day, two of them were on their way to a village called Emmaus, seven miles from Jerusalem,

14 and they were talking together about all that had happened.

15 And it happened that as they were talking together and discussing it, Jesus himself came up and walked by their side;

16 but their eyes were prevented from recognising him.

17 He said to them, 'What are all these things that you are discussing as you walk along?' They stopped, their faces downcast.

18 Then one of them, called Cleopas, answered him, 'You must be the only person staying in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have been happening there these last few days.'

19 He asked, 'What things?' They answered, 'All about Jesus of Nazareth, who showed himself a prophet powerful in action and speech before God and the whole people;

20 and how our chief priests and our leaders handed him over to be sentenced to death, and had him crucified.

21 Our own hope had been that he would be the one to set Israel free. And this is not all: two whole days have now gone by since it all happened;

22 and some women from our group have astounded us: they went to the tomb in the early morning,

23 and when they could not find the body, they came back to tell us they had seen a vision of angels who declared he was alive.

24 Some of our friends went to the tomb and found everything exactly as the women had reported, but of him they saw nothing.'

25 Then he said to them, 'You foolish men! So slow to believe all that the prophets have said!

26 Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer before entering into his glory?'

27 Then, starting with Moses and going through all the prophets, he explained to them the passages throughout the scriptures that were about himself.

28 When they drew near to the village to which they were going, he made as if to go on;

29 but they pressed him to stay with them saying, 'It is nearly evening, and the day is almost over.' So he went in to stay with them.

30 Now while he was with them at table, he took the bread and said the blessing; then he broke it and handed it to them.

31 And their eyes were opened and they recognised him; but he had vanished from their sight.

32 Then they said to each other, 'Did not our hearts burn within us as he talked to us on the road and explained the scriptures to us?'

33 They set out that instant and returned to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven assembled together with their companions,

34 who said to them, 'The Lord has indeed risen and has appeared to Simon.'

35 Then they told their story of what had happened on the road and how they had recognised him at the breaking of bread.