Kneeling at St. Dominic's Church in San Francisco before a huge cross flanked by two smaller ones on either side, praying: Cleanse my sins. Starting today, may my years begin and end with Good Friday.
At St. Dominic’s church, the huge cross was there before me but the two smaller ones were not yet in place even though I did not notice or care about them not being there. Later a pair of acolytes in white vestments carried out one of the smaller crosses followed by another pair carrying out the other. They placed them in their respective stands but took them away after a fitting and centering the main cross between the two.
After saying the sorrowful mysteries of the rosary, I reflected on the purpose of the crucifixion of Jesus. From occasional church attendances over the years, I learned that Christ died for our sins, and that the Lamb of God takes away the sins of the world, but I have never questioned the validity of the statements. Today, however, I thought how could that be since I am still sinful and I am pretty sure a lot of others are as well, which brings me to this blog entry.
The first thing I did after coming back from church was to open up my Bible, to find out if Jesus said Himself that His death would take away sin. Since I do not read it much, I researched the issue on the Internet. A website directed the reader to Matthew 1:21. [1] In my Bible, that passage reported that an angel told Joseph that Jesus would save His people from their sins. [2] The angel did not say that Jesus had to die on a cross to do so.
The website also referred the reader to Matthew 26:28. [1] This was the scene of The Last Supper where Jesus took a cup and told His disciples to drink from it “for this is my blood of the covenant, which shall be shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins.” [2] These words of Jesus, together with the bloody scourge at the pillar and Jesus’ blood from the thorny crown and the five wounds inflicted upon His body on the cross are all the evidence I need to convince myself that the lessons I have learned are not unsubstantiated extrapolations.
Perhaps it would be well to stop here.
But I will not. What entered my mind while I was kneeling in meditation before the large cross was new to me and certainly unorthodox as it relates to the forgiveness of sins (to put it mildly).
So here goes it: Death of Jesus on the cross was definitely not enough for the forgiveness of my sins unless Jesus’ death is a continuous remission of sins continuously committed.
Is Jesus’ death a continuous remission of sins continuously committed? How can that be true, thinking that one can go on sinning and sinning and Jesus’ blood will keep on cleansing and cleansing the stains of sins to save one’s soul, even though I have faith that it is true?
What if it is not true? Have I deceived myself into NOT believing that experiencing the death of our own sins is necessary for the salvation of the soul and that relying solely on the blood that Christ has shed during His torture and His crucifixion is not enough?
Perhaps it is easier to live with the fiction that the blood of Christ is the detergent for sins than to look at Christ and the forgiveness of sins another way. Perhaps it is time I do.
Was the death of Christ not also the death of temptation, of greed, of pride and of vengeance? Is it possible that Christ was showing us the path to salvation by His refusal to prostrate before Satan and accept Satan’s offer of the world’s riches and by His humility in accepting Judas’ betrayal, His haters, His false accusers, the scourging, the crown of thorns, the taunting and the unjust death sentence? Could therefore the blood that Jesus Himself said He would shed for the forgiveness of sins is not to be taken literally but illustratively?
I think so. Accordingly, we cannot expect automatic salvation but need to shed our weakness for temptations, our greed, our pride, our desires for vengeance and justice just as Jesus had in order that we may save our own souls. [3]
[1] http://lavistachurchofchrist.org/LVarticles/WhatDoesTheBibleSayAboutSalvation.html
[2] The New American Bible. NY: Oxford University Press, Inc. 1990.
[3] Note: Why didn’t God simply write on another tablet the recipe for salvation and hand it to someone? The Ten Commandments have not proven to be effective since neither Jew nor Gentile has paid them much heed. Why did God make Jesus the sacrificial lamb? Perhaps man is only capable of recognizing the road to salvation by seeing the Son of God Himself suffer profoundly and only able to have salvation by living purely as He had and dying humbly as He did.
No comments:
Post a Comment