Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
Francis BakerMarch 28, 2024

The original sin was not an offense
that demands a suffering penitence.
Separation because of transcendence
is the issue; God is other than us.

The work of Christ is to span the chasm
between us and the wholly other God.
His work, not appeasement but at-one-ment,
is to swaddle us with our mother God.

Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection
made us into one with our great maker.
Brings us into oneness with everything,
Christ is the supreme peacemaker.

Jesus’ purpose was not to punish.
He did not come to make us feel guilty
or put a crowbar to God’s mercy.
He came to be in solidarity.

Jesus in himself is divine healing.
The shadow of others says, “Shame on us,”
those whose religion is separation.
He came to us to be the same as us.

Divinity became humanity,
took on our beauty and our misery,
so that what is assumed is then folded in
and we are brought into divinity.

Christ has already sprung you from yourself
so now you are free to be “Beloved.”
That, dear one, is God’s nickname for you,
just relax and let yourself be loved.

In the beginning, from the primal spark,
God was crazy in love with our earthy
humanity, made from love, to be loved
and able to love because we are free.

Sure, at some point everything went south,
we used our freedom for insurrection,
so there had to be a mid-course correction.
What Christ did was recapitulation.

His life, death, and resurrection,
the whole of which is our salvation,
hit the reset switch. What redemption means
is that we are a renewed creation.

The latest from america

Vice President Kamala Harris delivers her concession speech for the 2024 presidential election on Nov. 6, 2024, on the campus of Howard University in Washington. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Catholic voters were a crucial part of Donald J. Trump’s re-election as president. But did misogyny and a resistance to women in power cause Catholic voters to disregard the common good?
Kathleen BonnetteNovember 21, 2024
In 1984, then-associate editor Thomas J. Reese, S.J., explained in depth how bishops are selected—from the initial vetting process to final confirmation by the pope and the bishop himself.
Thomas J. ReeseNovember 21, 2024
In this week’s episode of “Inside the Vatican,” Colleen Dulle and Gerard O’Connell discuss a new book being released this week in which Pope Francis calls for the investigation of allegations of genocide in Gaza.
Inside the VaticanNovember 21, 2024
An exclusive conversation with Father James Martin, Gerard O’Connell, Colleen Dulle and Sebastian Gomes about the future of synodality in the U.S. church
America StaffNovember 20, 2024