{"id":19998,"date":"2021-04-01T10:07:36","date_gmt":"2021-04-01T14:07:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=19998"},"modified":"2021-04-01T10:10:57","modified_gmt":"2021-04-01T14:10:57","slug":"the-wisdom-of-the-passion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=19998","title":{"rendered":"The Wisdom of the Passion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Tlzm1qYa9TU\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>CAC teacher Cynthia Bourgeault invites us to consider the meaning of the passion from a wisdom perspective, not as a spectator watching what Jesus did, but understanding what each of us is called to do:&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The passion is really the mystery of all mysteries, the heart of the Christian faith experience. By the word \u201cpassion\u201d here we mean the events which end Jesus\u2019s earthly life: his betrayal, trial, execution on a cross, and death. . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The spectacle of an innocent and good man destroyed by the powers of this world is an archetypal human experience. It elicits our deepest feelings of remorse and empathy (and if we\u2019re honest, our own deepest shadows as well). . . . It\u2019s been used to stir anger and scapegoating. It\u2019s been used to fuel anti-Semitism, to induce personal guilt\u2014\u201cChrist died for your sins\u201d\u2014and to arouse devotion in a sentimental and even fanatical way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From a wisdom point of view, what can we say about the passion? . . .&nbsp; The key lies in . . . &nbsp;reading Jesus\u2019s life as a sacrament: a sacred mystery whose real purpose is not to arouse empathy but to&nbsp;<em>create empowerment<\/em>. In other words, Jesus is not particularly interested in increasing either your guilt or your devotion, but rather, in deepening your personal capacity to make the passage into unitive life. If you\u2019re willing to work with that wager, the passion begins to make sense in a whole new way. . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The path<\/em>&nbsp;[<em>Jesus<\/em>] did&nbsp;<em>walk is precisely the one that would most fully unleash the transformative power of his teaching.<\/em>&nbsp;It both modeled and consecrated the eye of the needle that each one of us must personally pass through in order to accomplish the \u201cone thing necessary\u201d here, according to his teaching: to die to self. I am not talking about literal crucifixion, of course, but I&nbsp;<em>am<\/em>&nbsp;talking about the literal laying down of our \u201clife,\u201d at least as we usually recognize it. Our only truly essential human task here, Jesus teaches, is to grow beyond the survival instincts of the animal brain and egoic operating system into the kenotic joy and generosity of full human personhood. . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What is the meaning of the passion? First of all, God wasn\u2019t angry. Again:\u00a0<em>God wasn\u2019t angry!\u00a0<\/em>Particularly in fundamentalist theology, you\u2019ll often hear it said that God got so fed up with the sins and transgressions of Israel that he demanded a human sacrifice in atonement. But of course, this interpretation would turn God into a monster. How can Jesus, who is love, radiate and reflect a God who is primarily a monster? And how can Christians theoretically progressing on a path of love consent to live under such a reign of terror? No, we need to bury once and for all those fear-and-punishment scenarios that got programmed into so many of us during our childhood. There is no monster out there; only love waiting to set us free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"276\" src=\"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/image-500x276.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-19999\" srcset=\"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/image-500x276.png 500w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/image-300x165.png 300w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/image-768x423.png 768w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/image.png 1952w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CAC teacher Cynthia Bourgeault invites us to consider the meaning of the passion from a wisdom perspective, not as a spectator watching what Jesus did, but understanding what each of us is called to do:&nbsp; The passion is really the mystery of all mysteries, the heart of the Christian faith experience. By the word \u201cpassion\u201d [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19998"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19998"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19998\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20001,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19998\/revisions\/20001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}