{"id":21254,"date":"2022-04-19T09:39:27","date_gmt":"2022-04-19T13:39:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=21254"},"modified":"2022-04-19T09:41:53","modified_gmt":"2022-04-19T13:41:53","slug":"21254","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=21254","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/vqSvTJeGU0k\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A Feast of Hope<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>In a homily offered on Easter Sunday 2019, Father Richard Rohr share<\/em><em>d<\/em><em>&nbsp;the good news of the resurrection:&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Brazilian writer and journalist Fernando Sabino (1923\u20132004) wrote, \u201cIn the end, everything will be [all right]. If it\u2019s not [all right], it\u2019s not the end.\u201d [1] That\u2019s what today is all about, \u201cEverything will be okay in the end.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The message of Easter is not primarily a message about Jesus\u2019 body, although we\u2019ve been trained to limit it to this one-time \u201cmiracle.\u201d We\u2019ve been educated to expect a lone, risen Jesus saying, \u201cI rose from the dead; look at me!\u201d I\u2019m afraid that\u2019s why many people, even Christians, don\u2019t really seem to get too excited about Easter. If the message doesn\u2019t somehow include us, humans don\u2019t tend to be that interested in theology. Let me share what I think the real message is:&nbsp;<em>Every message about Jesus is a message about all of us<\/em>, about humanity. Sadly, the Western church that most of us were raised in emphasized the individual resurrection of Jesus. It was a miracle that we could neither prove nor experience, but that we just dared to boldly believe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But there\u2019s a great secret, at least for Western Christians, hidden in the other half of the universal church. In the Eastern Orthodox Church\u2014in places like Syria, Turkey, Greece, and Egypt\u2014Easter is not usually painted with a solitary Jesus rising from the dead. He\u2019s always surrounded by crowds of people\u2014both haloed and unhaloed. In fact, in traditional icons, he\u2019s pulling people out of Hades. Hades is not the same as hell, although we put the two words together, and so we grew up reciting in the creed that \u201cJesus descended into hell.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Instead, Hades is simply the place of the dead. There\u2019s no punishment or judgment involved. It\u2019s just where a soul waits for God. But we neglected that interpretation. So the Eastern Church was probably much closer to the truth that the resurrection is a message about humanity. It\u2019s a message about history. It\u2019s a corporate message, and it includes you and me and everyone else. If that isn\u2019t true, it\u2019s no wonder that we basically lost interest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Today is the feast of hope, direction, purpose, meaning, and community. We\u2019re all in this together. The cynicism and negativity that our country and many other countries have descended into show a clear example of what happens when people do not have hope. If it\u2019s all hopeless, we individually lose hope too. Easter is an announcement of a common hope. When we sing in the Easter hymn that Christ destroyed death, that means the death of all of us. It\u2019s not just about Jesus; it\u2019s to humanity that God promises, \u201cLife is not ended, it merely changes,\u201d as we say in the funeral liturgy. That\u2019s what happened in Jesus, and that\u2019s what will happen in us. In the end, everything will be all right. History is set on an inherently positive and hopeful tangent.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Universal Restoration<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Father Richard writes about the early church\u2019s belief in universal restoration and the eventual victory of Divine Love:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A number of Church Fathers during the first four centuries of Christianity believed in&nbsp;what\u2019s called&nbsp;<em>apokatastasis,&nbsp;<\/em>or\u201cuniversal restoration\u201d (Acts 3:21). [1] They believed that the real meaning of Christ\u2019s resurrection was that God\u2019s love was so perfect and so victorious that it would finally triumph in every single person\u2019s life. They were so sure about this that their thought partially gave rise to the idea of purgatory as a place. In the dying process or even after death, God\u2019s infinite love can and will&nbsp;<em>still<\/em>&nbsp;get at us! They felt no soul could resist the revelation of such infinite love. (Most Catholics were never taught that the original folk belief in purgatory represented an overwhelming sense of God\u2019s always-victorious love and mercy. Like many great mysteries, it deteriorated into its exact opposite, a place of punishment\u2014which is all a worldview of scarcity can devise.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From my reading of the history of the Catholic Church and its dogma,&nbsp;universal restorationwas never condemned as heretical. We didn\u2019t have to believe in it, but we certainly could. Isn\u2019t it interesting that we Catholics canonize saints, pronouncing them to be in heaven beyond a shadow of a doubt, yet this same Church has never declared that a single person is in hell or purgatory, not even Judas or Hitler? The Church might just be holding out for a possible universal restoration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The true meaning of the raising of Jesus is that God will turn all our human crucifixions into resurrection. This is a social, historical victory for God. Part of why we could not accept it is that we want individual people to \u201cget their due.\u201d But the real biblical message is that God is loving history much more than only loving individuals. This should have been apparent from YHWH\u2019s relationship with Israel which was always corporate, both in its covenants and in its chastisements.&nbsp;We are all in this together, biblically speaking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In her thirteenth showing, Julian of Norwich (1343\u2013c. 1416) asked Jesus, \u201cIn fear and trembling, \u2018Oh, good Lord, how can all be well when great harm has come to your creatures through sin?\u2019 And here I wanted, if I dared, to have some clearer explanation to put my mind at rest.\u201d And to this our blessed Lord . . . taught me . . . \u2018Since I have brought good out of the worst-ever evil, I want you to know, by this, that I shall bring good out of all lesser evils, too.\u2019\u201d [2]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Could God\u2019s love really be that great and that universal? I believe it is. Love is the lesson, and God\u2019s love is so great that God will finally teach it to all of us. We\u2019ll finally surrender, and God will win in the end. That will be God\u2019s \u201cjustice,\u201d which will swallow up our lesser versions. God\u2014Love\u2014does not lose!<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Invincibility of God\u2019s Love<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Archbishop Desmond Tutu (1931\u20132021) shares a hopeful vision for the transformation of all death into new life, all evil into good.&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dear Child of God, it is often difficult for us to recognize the presence of God in our lives and in our world. In the clamor of the tragedy that fills the headlines we forget about the majesty that is present all around us. We feel vulnerable and often helpless. . . . But we are not helpless and with God\u2019s love we are ultimately invincible. Our God does not forget those who are suffering and oppressed.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Tutu shares an experience he had when gathered with other church leaders during the most difficult days of apartheid:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We met at a theological college that had closed down because of the government\u2019s racist policies. During our discussions I went into the priory garden for some quiet. There was a huge Calvary\u2014a large wooden cross without a corpus, but with protruding nails and crown of thorns. It was a stark symbol of the Christian faith. It was winter: the grass was pale and dry and nobody would have believed that in a few weeks\u2019 time it would be lush and green and beautiful again. It would be transfigured.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As I sat quietly in the garden I realized the power of transfiguration\u2014of God\u2019s transformation\u2014in our world. The principle of transfiguration&nbsp;<em>[Richard: very similar to how I describe resurrection]<\/em>&nbsp;is at work when something so unlikely as the brown grass that covers our veld in winter becomes bright green again. Or when the tree with gnarled leafless branches bursts forth with the sap flowing so that the birds sit chirping in the leafy branches. Or when the once dry streams gurgle with swift-flowing water. When winter gives way to spring and nature seems to experience its own resurrection.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The principle of transfiguration says nothing, no one and no situation, is \u201cuntransfigurable,\u201d that the whole of creation, nature, waits expectantly for its transfiguration, when it will be released from its bondage and share in the glorious liberty of the children of God, when it will not be just dry inert matter but will be translucent with divine glory. . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All over this magnificent world God calls us to extend [God\u2019s] kingdom of shalom\u2014peace and wholeness\u2014of justice, of goodness, of compassion, of caring, of sharing, of laughter, of joy, and of reconciliation. God is transfiguring the world right this very moment\u00a0<em>through us\u00a0<\/em>because God\u00a0<em>believes in us\u00a0<\/em>and because God\u00a0<em>loves us.\u00a0<\/em>What can separate us from the love of God? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. And as we share God\u2019s love with our brothers and sisters, God\u2019s other children, there is no tyrant who can resist us, no oppression that cannot be ended, no hunger that cannot be fed, no wound that cannot be healed, no hatred that cannot be turned to love, no dream that cannot be fulfilled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"320\" src=\"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/image-3-500x320.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-21255\" srcset=\"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/image-3-500x320.png 500w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/image-3-300x192.png 300w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/image-3-768x491.png 768w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/image-3.png 1772w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Feast of Hope In a homily offered on Easter Sunday 2019, Father Richard Rohr shared&nbsp;the good news of the resurrection:&nbsp; The Brazilian writer and journalist Fernando Sabino (1923\u20132004) wrote, \u201cIn the end, everything will be [all right]. If it\u2019s not [all right], it\u2019s not the end.\u201d [1] That\u2019s what today is all about, \u201cEverything [&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\/21254"}],"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=21254"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21257,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21254\/revisions\/21257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}