NO GREATER LOVE: EXPIATION

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The early Church very quickly had to deal with the question concerning the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Why did it happen? When the high priest asked Jesus, “I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.” (Mt 26:63) why did He not work a great and spectacular miracle to prove His Divinity? That was not the Will of the Father. Why did He not say that He was just a man who was standing up for the sick, the poor, the rejected, the abandoned, and sinners? That would be a lie. It was the Will of the Father that He be crucified. Why?

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Pope Benedict points us toward the answer in Jesus of Nazareth. We have spoken a number of times already of the fundamental text in Romans 3:25, where Paul, evidently drawing upon a tradition of the earliest Jewish Christian community in Jerusalem, refers to the crucified Jesus as "hilastērion". This, as we have seen, was the name given to the covering of the Ark of the Covenant, on which the expiatory blood was sprinkled on the great Day of Atonement during the expiatory sacrifice. Let us explain straightaway how the Christians now interpreted this archaic ritual: it is not through the blood of animals touching a holy object that God and man are reconciled. In Jesus' Passion, all the filth of the world touches the infinitely pure one, the soul of Jesus Christ and, hence, the Son of God himself. While it is usually the case that anything unclean touching something clean renders it unclean, here it is the other way around: when the world, with all the injustice and cruelty that make it unclean, comes into contact with the infinitely pure one-then he, the pure one, is the stronger. Through this contact, the filth of the world is truly absorbed, wiped out, and transformed in the pain of infinite love. Because infinite good is now at hand in the man Jesus, the counter­weight to all wickedness is present and active within world history, and the good is always infinitely greater than the vast mass of evil, however terrible it may be.

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If we reflect more deeply on this insight, we find the answer to an objection that is often raised against the idea of atonement. Again and again people say: It must be a cruel God who demands infinite atonement. Is this not a notion unworthy of God? Must we not give up the idea of atonement in order to maintain the purity of our image of God? In the use of the term "hilastērion" with reference to Jesus, it becomes evident that the real forgiveness accomplished on the Cross functions in exactly the opposite direction. The reality of evil and injustice that disfigures the world and at the same time distorts the image of God-this reality exists, through our sin. It cannot simply be ignored; it must be addressed. But here it is not a case of a cruel God demanding the infinite. It is exactly the opposite: God himself becomes the locus of reconciliation, and in the person of his Son takes the suffering upon himself. God himself grants his infinite purity to the world. God himself "drinks the cup" of every horror to the dregs and thereby restores justice through the greatness of his love, which, through suffering, transforms the darkness.

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The expiation or atonement which Pope Benedict is referring to was discussed extensively in the letters of St. Paul. “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction; since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, they are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as an expiation by his blood, to be received by faith.” (Rom 3:21-25) The Lord’s atonement for our sins (expiation) must be believed by us. We must accept His Divine Rank, and that He can do what no mere human can possibly do, which is to atone for our sins. The objection, which Pope Benedict mentions, that God’s demand for expiation for human sins is a cruelty unworthy of God, presupposes that Jesus was just a man who was in an extraordinary way in touch with the “ultimate reality” of God. However, both Pope Benedict and St. Paul confirm that it is God who atones for our sins. We must accept in faith the gift (grace) which He has given us. St. John also confirms this when he writes “My little children, I am writing this to you that you may not sin; but if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the expiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2:1-2) Later in the same letter John tells us, “In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins.” (1John 4:10) This statement from St. John confirms that the crucifixion of the Lord was not the demand of a cruel God, but a manifestation of the Father’s love for us.

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Pope Benedict explains that the sprinkling of animal blood on the Ark of the Covenant on the great Day of Atonement was meant to be an expiation of the sins of the people of Israel. Yet it soon became clear that this was not enough. The devout of Israel realized that God really wants our repentance and obedience. “For you take no delight in sacrifice; were I to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased. The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” (Ps 51:16-17) Something similar is said in Ps 40:6-8. “Sacrifice and offering you do not desire; but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required. Then I said, ‘Behold, I come; in the roll of the book it is written of me; I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.’”

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 Pope Benedict has pointed out in Jesus of Nazareth, that our obedience is not enough. Yet, on the other hand, a feeling of insufficiency still remains. Again and again our obedience proves patchy. Our own will imposes itself repeatedly. The deep sense of the inadequacy of all human obedience to God’s word causes the urgent desire for atonement to break out again and again, yet it is not something we can accomplish by ourselves or on the basis of our “rendering of obedience”. The letter to the Hebrews tells us who provides the obedience which we cannot provide: Jesus Christ.

Pope Benedict points out that this letter quotes Psalm 40 given above. “Sacrifice and offering you do not desire; but you have given me an open ear.” However, the author of Hebrews makes an important change. “For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Consequently, when Christ came into the world he said, ‘Sacrifice and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.’” (Heb 10:4-6) The author of Hebrews changed “but you have given me an open ear” to “but a body you have prepared for me,” The “open ear” probably means listening to the commands of God. The change to “a body” refers to the sacrifice of expiation for our sins on the Cross. Christ’s totally giving of Himself on the Cross was something only He could do. Only the incarnate Word could accomplish what animal sacrifices and even our own obedience could not accomplish.

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However, we are not just passive observers of expiation. “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” (Rom 6:3-4) According to St. Paul, we participate in the Lord’s Death and Resurrection when we are baptized. However, we also participate in the Lord’s sacrifice in the Eucharist. St. Paul also tells us, “I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” (Rom 12:1) At the Mass, the priest says, “Pray, brethren, that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God, the almighty Father.” While we do not offer Mass with the priest, we do offer to the Lord ourselves as our “spiritual worship”.

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The expiation of our sins, which was accomplished by Jesus Christ on the Cross, is not just a long-ago event. It is something we participate in during our whole lives through the sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist. Because the Lord gave everything to the Father by His obedience on the Cross, we can also offer our whole existence to the Father. We do this by following Him. However, the Lord tells us “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” (Mt 16:24, Mk 8:34, Lk 9:23) Note that before one “takes up his cross” he first needs to “deny himself”. One way of doing this is fasting. In fact, the Church generally requires fasting for a period of time before receiving the Eucharist. Fasting is not the cross. Yet, just as the Lord fasted in the desert to prepare for His Ministry to Israel and His rejection and Crucifixion, we also need to fast to be ready and awake for whatever the Lord demands of us. Christians have done this for two thousand years. –Jim Nugent, CfP